Sparkling at the door
by ScreamGurl
Summary: You ever heard of that saying that your past comes back to haunt you well Optimus is about to learn that the hard way. Warning Contains adult themes!
1. Chapter 1

***Author's note: everything in this story that is **_**italicized**_** refers to a flash back.**

**Everything in this story refers to after Sari's change from organic to techno-organic but before Endgame. Also a need to know: 1,000 vorns would be like 1 year (in human terms). Also try to find the movies that were used as inspiration. (Do not own any of them).***

It's yet another quiet and peaceful day in the city of Detroit. The locals go about their ever day lives without the worries of the much larger battle being fought as they walked their daily commutes. Meanwhile at the Autobot base, it was a different story.

"Any sign of Decepticon activity Ratchet?" Prime walks into the recreational area of the base.

"No Prime I haven't seen anything on the news and Teletran 1 isn't showing anything either." Ratchet walks away from the screens to Prime. "But, we'll keep an optic on the screens just to be on the safe side."

"Come' on Prime. What's with you being so worked up all of a sudden?" (Bumblebee looking away from his videogames.) "You've been watching the monitors since you got up this morning."

"Yeah boss bot, what's got you so worked up?" Bulkhead looks up from his painting that he's been working on for the last few months.

"I don't know…." Prime walks to the window looking up to the now clear blue sky. "… I just got a feeling …ya' know?"

"What kind of feeling? What do you mean?" Bumblebee turns off his videogames and walks over to Prime.

Prime doesn't look away from the window, he doesn't even acknowledge that he's being talked to. Still looking up at the afternoon sky he sees a mocking bird flying away from the base into the afternoon sun.

Ratchet notices he's in a daze. "Prime! Are you listening?" Prime turns away from the window to notice his entire crew looking at him with looks of confusion. Ratchet looks at him again. "Did you even hear a word I said?"

Prime looks to the floor in embarrassment realizing his mistake. "I'm sorry Ratchet, I must have dozed off for a second, what were you saying?"

Ratchet looks at the young leader in udder annoyance with his behavior. "I asked you if you were listening to a word any one was saying?"

Prime looks away again with yet more embarrassment. "No, not really."

Just then the alarm on the computer screens in the back of the room activated indicating a message had been received. The systems of the base indicated that it was the Elite Guard trying to contact them. Optimus walked to the computer screens, typed in a code, pressed a series of buttons and soon enough Sentinel Prime's face was on the monitor screen.

"Optimus, I'm contacting you over a matter of shear importance." Sentinel looked at Optimus as if he was not the bot he wanted to be talking to but really had no choice.

"What do you mean Sentinel? What's so important that you're coming all this way to Earth?" Optimus looked at Sentinel as if he really didn't want to be talking to him either.

Sentinel looked at Optimus in the least sincere of looks. "Please, spare me the chit chat Optimus… I don't have time for it… we'll be there in less than 48 mega-cycles, Sentinel out." With that the image of Sentinel's face was gone from the screens.

"Well, I guess Sentinels' coming for a visit." Prime looks away from the screens to his crew.

"Oh Primus, why can't that son-of-a-glitch leave us alone and let us do our job?" Bumblebee said as he walked away from the others. "I mean, doesn't he have worries of his own?"

Prime looks past the others to Bumblebee. "Normally I would say: first of all, don't use that kind of language and second **we're** one of his worries, but I guess in a way you're right."

"Bumblebee… right? Well I guess there's always a chance for miracles." Prowl walks out from the corner he was meditating in.

"Oh, very funny… who asked you anyway?" Bumblebee looks at Prowl with anger then walks away.

Prime looks at the two laughing then looks back out the window. "Well, whatever it is he has to tell us, it must be important…"

Forty-eight hours later the flag ship of the Elite Guard landed just outside the base in a clearing just big enough for the ship's hull. Sentinel had brought his crew with him in case of possible Decepticon activity. Jazz, Jetfire and Jetstorm were more than happy to get out of that ship and to get away from Sentinel. Ever since Ultra Magnus' almost going off-line and Sentinel's taking over as supreme leader, he's been acting more stuck –up than ever. And let's face facts; he's starting to drive everyone crazy.

The main door of the ship revealing its contents of four bots. Three being in a good mood about being able to come back to Earth, and one, not so much.

"Hello Sentinel, pleasure seeing you again." Optimus (trying his absolute hardest to greet the crew in a pleasant disposition even though was annoyed by Sentinel's constant presence) greeted them as they came off the ship.

"Well hey there OP, How's it hanging?" Jazz was more than happy to talk. "So how have you-"

"Cut the chatter Jazz, we've got more important things to discus rather than "greetings" understand." Sentinel cutting in on Jazz's and Optimus' discussion.

Jazz didn't say anything, just shrugged and fallowed the others into the base, as did Optimus and Sentinel. Apparently the Prime's had a long discussion, a very, very, **very** long discussion; one that lasted over three hours. According to Cybertronian intelligence, there has been a leak in information somewhere in the system and there has been a record outbreak in killings among Cybertronian citizens. No one knows who is behind the murders but the council suspects a possibility of Decepticons being responsible.

"But I don't understand Sentinel, why are you telling me this? What do you want me to do about it?" Optimus looked at Sentinel puzzled.

Sentinel looking back at him with a smug grin in his face plate. "I want you to see if you can find Megatron and gather some intel to see if he's behind these recent killings."

"Easier said than done Sentinel." Optimus looked at Sentinel expecting a response which is exactly what he received.

Sentinel mocking Optimus. "What? You don't think you can handle the job Optimus?"

"No Sentinel, it's not that it's just…" Optimus looks back out the window he was looking out before.

Sentinel looks out the same window Optimus is looking out, and then looks at Optimus. "What?"

"It's just that it feels like…something…"Optimus continues to look out the window then looks at Sentinel. "…that something's coming…"


	2. Chapter 2

Meanwhile back at the ship something really WAS happening. Inside the ship a small shadow emerged from a crevasse in the storage facility. Its bright blue optics lit up the room and the object clearly sees that the ship had landed.

"Where am I?" The object clearly appeared to have a feminine voice of that of a young sparkling; a very young sparkling.

"This doesn't look like Iacon." As the frightened sparkling said this, she removed herself from between the two crates she had hidden herself between.

"But I guess since I'm still on the ship, I won't know if I'm at Iacon or not." The sparkling very cautiously moved through the monstrously large hallways of the ship to find the door leading outside. But what was waiting for her outside? She only had one way to find out. As the sparkling brought herself into the light we could clearly see that she was a young femme sparkling about seven thousand vorns old with red and blue armor. She walked through the hallways and stopped when she felt a light, cool breeze coming from outside the ship. When she approached the door she was overtaken by the sight she saw. Yep, this wasn't Iacon… or Cybertron for that matter. What she saw was unlike anything she had ever seen. This planet had so much…GREEN! Why is it green? Is it sick or something? But she knew it was a planet because when she looked up she could clearly see the black night sky filled with its everlasting blanket of stars. As she descended down the long exit ramp of the ship, the cold night air hit her armor but it didn't feel bad, it actually felt…good.

"So am I understood Optimus?" Sentinel was coming out of the base while still talking to Optimus. "Or are you going to blow off everything I've just told you?"

The sparkling realized the big mech was returning to the ship. She had to hide…QUICK! She jumped down off the ramp and ran across a large stretch of pavement and hid behind a large garbage bin.

"Oh, Primus, I hope he didn't see me."Slowly the sparkling turned around and looked back toward the ship. The two mechs were still standing there talking. She sank back down behind the garbage bin relieved. "*(sighs)*Good they didn't…-wait a nano-click-…THEY?" The sparkling shot up to look at this new bot. When she was on the ship she only saw four large mechs; a blue one, a white one, and orange and blue twins so….who was this guy? He stood tall and proud. His face plate was very…familiar. Where has she seen him before? His red and blue armor looks freakishly familiar, wait…red…and…blue…armor? She slowly looks down at her own armor realizing she's made up with the same colors, the same shades in fact. But any bot could have the same colors; it could be just a coincidence. The large mech then raised a servo to rub one of his large blue antennas. The sparkling looked up at her own head to realize she too had a similar pair of antennas as well. It could still just be a coincidence, right?

"OPTIMUS ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING?" Sentinel was beginning to become annoyed with Optimus recent problem of randomly drifting off during a conversation. The sparkling froze instantly when she heard Sentinel shout that name.

"…..Optimus? Could it be?" The sparkling whispered to herself in disbelief. "Could it _really_ be?" But only when she heard him speak, was when she knew for sure.

"Huh? Oh, sorry Sentinel I didn't mean to-"

"Look Optimus, this is extremely important, we can't afford to have you drifting off to the farthest reaches of space."Sentinel apparently for once in his life WAS being serious.

Optimus looking up at Sentinel realizing his own mistake. "I'm sorry Sentinel it's just that…"

Sentinel disregarding Optimus. "I know, I know… that you feel like something is coming, you've told me that about a hundred thousand times."

Optimus laughing to himself. "I apologize Sentinel, but I will try to find out what Megatron is up to."

As Sentinel walks away back to the ship, his crew fallows. "Good…we'll check back in on you and your crew in less than a stellar cycle." With that Sentinel ascended into the ship with the door closing behind him and the rest of his crew. With the ship roaring to life and lifting off the ground, the ship was gone into the atmosphere within seconds leaving its previous cargo behind.

The sparkling watched as the flag ship of the Elite Guard faded into the night sky. Great, now what? She's stuck on a strange alien planet with no idea as to what her next plan of action is. But on the bright side, she thinks she's found what she's been looking for…..for a long, long time.

That first night on this strange new planet was one of the hardest she's ever had. She woke up the next morning still behind the garbage bin she hid behind the previous night. The sun was rising over the horizon allowing the sparkling's optics to see things she hadn't seen before. But with her optics still craving stasis, she again fell into sleep, heavy sleep, so heavy that one mega-cycle later she was unable to hear to small, quiet footsteps approaching.

Sari Sumdac, the daughter of Professor Sumdac of Sumdac Industries had befriended the Autobots when they first crashed on Earth, and had later found out that she herself was half of their species. She lived in the base with the Autobots and had been teaching them of Earth ways since they first arrived on the planet.

Sari was up early every morning doing things to occupy herself as so not wake her "fellow machines" from their stasis. She was taking out a large bag of trash to the bin when she noticed something and froze. It was a little…body?

Sari put the bag of trash on the ground as quietly as possible and cautiously approached. It was a body! A little robot! Could it possibly be Cybertronian? Only one way to find out. Sari slowly circled the little one as if looking for something, clearly an Autobot or Decepticon symbol or any symbol for that matter but stopped when she noticed the edge of a small red symbol on its shoulder. Sari was about to move aside its shoulder to see when she jumped at the sudden movement of the little one. It was waking up! Sari jumped back in horror and shock but fell on her ass in the attempt of escaping and just froze. Apparently her fight or flight response had failed. The little sparkling opened her optics to see and feel the warmth of the still rising sun. It was near noon now but she still had the feeling of being tired. That feeling soon went away when her optics came across a small sentient being sitting just feet away from her. The sparkling froze. Fear shot through her circuits like a plague. She didn't move…she couldn't, she could only sit there and watch as this being watched her.

After many minutes of sitting and staring, Sari broke the silence making the sparkling jump.

"Hi." Sari said with a gentle smile upon her face. The sparkling's feelings now changed from fear to curiosity. This was a being sitting right in front of her and is almost as big as her and above all other things…was talking. Moments passed before the sparkling could muster up enough courage to respond.

"Uh…hi" The sparkling's voice was nothing more than a whisper.

Sari sat back with an expression of udder amazement. "So…" Sari leans forward while smiling. "…you can talk."

"So can you." Was the sparkling's response. "How is that even possible?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing." Sari almost laughed.

With that a small smile seemed to slip onto the young bot's face. She gazed across this new creature with no fear in her mind anymore but instead EXTREAME curiosity.

The sparkling leaded forward onto her knees slowly approaching Sari.

"What are you?" The sparkling reached out a servo to Sari.

Sari was a little overtaken by the sparkling's actions but allowed it. The sparkling gently caressed Sari's hair feeling the soft smooth texture of its surface.

"I'm a human," Sari answered. "…well technically I'm half human, but, what are you?"

The sparkling was captivated by the color of Sari's hair. Sari while looking up at the obviously amused youngling. "What are you doing?"

The sparkling looking at Sari. "What is this stuff that covers your head?"

Sari while holding out a lock of hair. "What? This?"

The sparkling nodded her head. Sari smiles.

"It's called hair."

"Hair?" The sparkling looks back at Sari's head holding some in her servo.

"Yes, but you still haven't answered my question." Sari pulls her hair away from the young ones servos.

The little one looks back to Sari. "Question? What question?"

Sari looks away in annoyance and slight disgust then looks back at the little one. "What ARE you?"

"Oh," The little one looks away and giggles. "I'm sorry, you see, I'm an Autobot sparkling." With that the little one pointed to her left shoulder. Sure enough there was an Autobot symbol showing its red and white pride. Sari was relieved and smiled back at the sparkling. Somehow the little machine was able to detect the feeling of relief in the little human.

"What's your name?" The little sparkling asked while taking the human in her hands. You see, what you have to understand is that this little sparkling is not much bigger then Sari …just a little but not by much.

"My name?" Sari asked pointing to herself.

The sparkling again giggled to herself nodding.

Sari found the little ones giggle quite intoxicating and was soon giggling herself. Sari looked up at the pair of big blue optics looking at her.

"My name is Sari." Sari smiled at the curious little bot.

"Sari?" The sparkling cocked her head to the side.

Sari giggles and smiles. "Yes, my name is Sari." She pauses. "What's your name?"

"My name?" The little bot points to herself.

"Yes silly, your name." Sari smiles and laughs.

The sparkling looked down at her stabilizing servos. "I…."

She again looked up at Sari. "I… don't have a name."

"**WHAT?" **Sari looked at the sparkling in disbelief.

The sparkling looked again at Sari. "I don't h-have a name."

Sari was dumbfounded by this. How could you not have a name? A name is like your soul, you can't live without it. At least she couldn't imagine living without a name, even a bad one at that.

But apparently it didn't bother this little red and blue bot at all, or at least from what she could…wait a minute…red and blue? Sari looked at this little bot and noticed something. Sari wasn't sure what it was that she realized, but something about this bot seemed … familiar. As if she seen this bot before, but where?

Meanwhile back inside the base the others were beginning to wake. Bumblebee and Bulkhead were the first to get up and the first to see Sari's new friend.

Bumblebee stood in the doorway watching in awe and confusion. Who was this strange new bot just outside the base.

"Sari?" Bumblebee stood in the doorway with Bulkhead next to him. Both were in awe.

The sparkling only sat in fear at the sight of these two new mechs. Sari apparently could feel that the sparkling truly was afraid at the sight of Bumblebee and Bulkhead.

Sari only smiled at the sparkling. "It's ok; they're not going to hurt you."

Sari stepped down from the sparkling's grasp and turned to Bumblebee and Bulkhead, then back to the sparkling. "Little one, this is Bumblebee and Bulkhead…my friends…and now…yours too…"


	3. Chapter 3

Ratchet, Bumblebee, Prowl and Bulkhead stood at one edge of the room with the sparkling at the other. Sari had explained everything she had found out about the sparkling but had yet to find out how it got here or what it was doing. I mean what would a sparkling as young as her be doing on Earth rather than Cybertron?

Ratchet crosses his arms and gazes over at the sparkling on the floor. "Maybe instead of standing here talking about where she came from, we should ask her."

"Ok Ratchet, then go and ask her…" Bumblebee looks to Ratchet. "…if you can get her to talk."

"Oh, come on guys, cut her a break."Sari walks over to the others. "I mean how would you feel if you were in her position?"

"As much as that makes sense Sari, we don't exactly know her position." Prowl approaches Sari but with his gaze is set upon the sparkling. "Maybe someone should go get Prime."

"I'll do it." With that Bulkhead left the room to go to Prime's quarters.

As Bulkhead leaves, Bumblebee turns to Sari. "So, what do we do now?"

Sari looks up at Bumblebee. "I'll talk to her…you know…see if I can get more information out of her before Prime gets here." Sari then walked away and toward the sparkling. She looked up and smiled when she noticed that Sari was coming back.

"What do they want with me?" The sparkling looked to Sari with worried optics. "Did I do something wrong?"

Sari hesitates. "NO! uh, no… y-you didn't do anything wrong. Nothing wrong at all. You see, we just want to ask you some questions, that's all." Sari again smiles.

"Just questions?" The sparkling cocked her head in confusion.

Sari nods. "Yes, just questions. You think you can do that?"

"Yeah, I think so…" The sparkling looks down and nods.

With that Sari stands and faces the others. "Ok Ratchet, she's all yours."

At first Ratchet hesitates but realizes that if he doesn't talk to the kid, no one will. Slowly but surely Ratchet approached the sparkling who was watching his every move with cautious optics. Ratchet slowly bent down onto his knees to meet her optics.

"Hey kid." Ratchet said with a forced grin. "Where did you come from?"

The sparkling looked up at Ratchet. "Cybertron." Was her only answer.

Ratchet sighs. "Not very talkative are we?"

The sparkling shrugs her shoulders and looks down.

Ratchet grumbled and moaned. "This is going to be a long day."

"Tell me about it."

Ratchet turned around to see Prime standing in the doorway looking over everything in the room but his optics fell upon the small sparkling sitting next to Ratchet. But Prime soon realized that a small pair of optics were watching him with a look of amazement, disbelief and awe.

"Who's your new friend Ratchet?" Prime asked as he approached both Ratchet and the sparkling.

Ratchet turned to Prime. "Don't know, she won't tell me her name…"

"That's because she doesn't have a name Ratchet." Sari looked at Ratchet from the arm of the cement-slab couch.

Prime looked at the sparkling, and then bent down beside Ratchet. "Didn't your creator call you by anything?"

The sparkling thought for a moment then looked directly at Prime. "My mother would often call me 'Little One' or 'Baby Girl'."

Prime looked at Ratchet then back at the sparkling. "Were is your creator."

Suddenly the sparkling looked down and didn't look up for a long time. Prime looked at the sparkling only to see a small pink streak of energon run down the sparkling's face plate. With only a whisper she was able to speak.

"She's gone….s-she…died, many stellar cycles ago."

There was a long pause and no one said anything, only watched as the sparkling sobbed. Prime couldn't help but feel bad for the grieving infant. But he still had a responsibility to find out why she was here.

Prime leaned down to look at the sparkling's face. "Hey, you gonna be ok?"

As the sparkling wiped away the tears, she slowly nodded her head.

"Are you up to a couple more questions?" Prime smiled as the sparkling looked up.

She whispered while sniffling. "Uh-huh."

Prime sat down on his aft facing the sparkling while Ratchet got up and joined the others on the other side of the room. Prime had gotten the little bot to finally start giving them the information they wanted.

"So- how did you get to Earth kid?"

"Earth?" The little bot seemed confused.

Prime only smiled realizing his mistake. "It's the planet that you're on now."

"Oh." She giggled to herself and began to explain everything. Apparently a long time ago when this sparkling was even younger, her creator had told the sparkling that if anything were to happen to her, she had to seek out a mech named Optimus. So that's exactly what the little femme did. She had lived on the streets of Iacon gathering information from other bots about a team of Autobots on another planet that were in the process of gathering All-Spark fragments. The only part of this information she required was that the Prime in charge of this operation was named… Optimus. And that's where Optimus had a problem.

"Wait, back up kid… your creator sent you to find…me?"

The sparkling looked at Prime dumbfounded. "You are Optimus Prime, are you not?"

"Yes I am…" Prime raises an eyebrow to the child. "…but that still doesn't answer my question as to how your creator knows me, so I'll just ask the big question: How does your creator know me?"

The sparkling looked down at the floor… then over at the others… then back at Prime. The sparkling sighed then got to her feet. She looked at Prime as if she was terrified out of her wits which she was but she had mustered up enough courage to get it out. She stood up and looked Prime straight in the optic.

"Please believe me when I say that I need your help looking for someone."

Prime cocks his head. "Who?"

The sparkling looks up. "…My Sire."

Sari turns to Prowl and whispers. "Sire? What's a sire?"

Prowl looks at Sari. "A sire would be the same as a father in Earth terms."

Prime stands up and looks down at the sparkling. "You're looking for your sire? Here? On…Earth?"

The sparkling looks down and shakes her head. "I'm not looking _**FOR**_ him, I'm looking _**AT**_ him."

Prime turns his head slightly looking at the sparkling dumbfounded. The sparkling slowly takes a step forward. "Hi, we've never met before, but a long time ago, you and my mother spent the night together and…well…here I am."

Prime takes a step back. "What exactly are you saying?"

Ratchet looks at Prime. "Uh, kid I _think_ what she's trying to say is that she's your sparkling."

Prime wheels around to face Ratchet. "WHAT?"

Prowl intervenes. "Prime what Ratchet is trying to say is that apparently… you have a daughter."

Primes face changes from confusion to just blank. "That's what I thought-"

With that Prime collapsed to the floor. Just collapsed. Apparently Ratchet was right about one thing…this WAS going to be a long, _long_ day.


	4. Chapter 4

After four hours of being unconscious, Prime had finally come around but was still in disbelief. He just sat on the couch with a vague expression of disbelief and horror. The sparkling on the other hand just sat across from him, watching him. She wanted to say something but somewhere in her processor there was something telling her not to. Instead she remained silent. Ratchet and the others stood at the edge of the recreation room watching the two from a distance. Sari was the first to speak.

"Did anyone else besides me see this coming?"

The others look down at her….confused of course.

Bumblebee looked at her then looked back at the duo."Wait, you knew…and you didn't even tell us?"

Sari looked at them. "I didn't know! I only…suspected."

Prowl curiously looked to Sari. "What do you mean?"

Sari looked at them again and then back at the two across the room whom still haven't said a word since Prime's… incident. "Well look at em'. They even look alike! I knew she reminded me of someone, and now that they're sitting next to each other, I can defiantly see a resemblance."

Sari was right. There was DEFINETLY a resemblance. As a matter of fact; they looked so similar it was almost scary. Since we all know what Optimus looks like, that makes it easy to imagine what the sparkling looks like. She's small, about Sari's size and was colored almost exactly like Optimus. She had his optics only with a hint of purple, his smile, almost everything except she was shaped to be more feminine and had a slightly different headset. Other than that, she was a spitting image of him; even though her shades of red and blue were lighter than his. The others could also now see the resemblance but Ratchet still wasn't quite convinced. He eventually approached the sparkling who in turn noticed him approaching. Ratchet bent down next to the sparkling.

"Listen kid, I need to take a sample of your CNA, is that ok?"

The sparkling without even looking away from Prime nodded her head. Ratchet proceeded to take a sample from the young one's circuits; then walked over to Prime.

"Prime, I need to do the same to you. Are ya' alright with that?"

Prime nodded and Ratchet proceeded to take the sample required, then walked away to the med lab.

Another long hour passed before Prime finally worked up the nerve to speak. Only no one expected him to do what he did. He laughed…hysterically.

The others confusingly looked at each other. And the sparkling looked at them just as confused as they were. Bumblebee looked to Sari and Sari returned the glance.

"Has he gone insane?" Bumblebee said looking at Sari, worried of course.

"Honestly Bee, I don't know." Sari couldn't help but look back at Prime who was now lying on his back laughing with energon pouring from his optics. Finally the laughter sided and he spoke.

"T-This is a joke right? Seriously kid, did Sentinel put you up to this?" Prime sat up looking at the sparkling still slightly laughing.

The sparkling cocked her head to the side. "Who's Sentinel?"

Prime's laughter subsided. "You're not actually serious, are you?"

The sparkling looked down in humiliation not really knowing what to say.

Prime looked at her still half laughing. "Seriously kid, there's just no way-."

"That she's your daughter?"

Everyone wheels around to see Ratchet in the doorway holding a small stack of papers.

"You might wanna rethink that theory Prime."

Prime looks down to the stack of papers that Ratchet is holding. Prime swallows…hard. All laughter is gone and in its place…horror.

"Um…" Prime looks up at Ratchet not wanting to know the answer. "…are those what I think they are?"

There was a slight stutter in his voice. Ratchet sighed before taking a seat next to Prime.

"Look Prime I understand that you're under a lot of stress right now and this situation that has come before you is only making things worse and you're trying hard to deny it to yourself. But it will be hard to deny it any longer once you've been shown proof."

Prime again swallowed hard before asking. "Proof?"

Ratchet sighed. "Prime, I ran both your CNA and the child's through the computer and compared all possible links in related algorithms."

Prime hesitated. "And?"

Ratchet looked at the sparkling who was looking at him, then looked back at Prime. "almost every single possible link that she could have the same as you…matches…EXACTLY."

Prime had a look of horror across his face plate. "Meaning?"

Ratchet looked Prime straight in the optic. "PRIME!" He then turned to the sparkling at pointed to her. "THAT SPARKLING**IS** YOUR DAUGHTER!"

Prime at first just couldn't comprehend the fact that Ratchet was telling him he had a daughter. He rose to his stabilizing servos and began pacing back and forth for a long time until finally stopping in the middle of the room. Prime begins to shake his head while looking at the floor. "No, no this can't be. She-she just can't be…mine. I'm mean that's impossible." He looks up at Ratchet almost screaming. "SHE JUST CAN"T BE MINE!" Ratchet got up and tried to talk some sense into Prime, but the sparkling knew what was happening. She looked down to the floor realizing what was going to happen. She tried so hard to hold back the burning tears… but couldn't. They streamed down her face plate like a silent stream. Ratchet turned to see a small puddle form under the sparkling's bowed head. Ratchet walked over to the weeping child.

"Hey kid, what's the matter?"

In only a whisper she was able to speak. "I should have never come…I knew this was going to happen."

At first Ratchet felt bad for the kid but that feeling soon changed from sadness to anger. How could Prime do this? Who knows how long this sparkling has been looking for him or how much she may have given up just to get this far. And now when she finally finds the one bot in this universe that she's been looking for, he turns her away saying there's just no way she is his. This angered Ratchet, it angered him far more then he had ever been before, or at least from what anyone could see. And it wasn't just Ratchet, oh no, Sari was equally angered by this because she had seen and heard everything that had happened. Ratchet again looked down to the weeping sparkling who was wiping away the tears. Ratchet did the first thing that came to mind….he yelled…..loud.

"**PRIME LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO THIS POOR KID! WHAT DID SHE DO TO DESERVE IT!"**

Ratchet had pointed to the sparkling who was now looking up at him. Prime's gaze drifted from Ratchet to the weeping sparkling back to Ratchet.

"**AFTER COMING ALL THIS WAY LOOKING FOR YOU, THIS IS THE WAY YOU REPAY HER? BY NOT EVEN ****CONSIDERING**** THE FACT THAT IT **_**JUST MIGHT**_** BE POSSIBLE THAT YOU COULD BE HER SIRE BUT INSTEAD JUST DISOWN HER!" **The others just couldn't believe Ratchet was yelling this loud…and at Prime! But Sari could, and she wasn't going to let Ratchet have all the fun because let's face it, she didn't like to see her sparkling cry.

"**SERIOUSLY PRIME! YOU HAVE TO MAKE SPARKLINGS CRY? YOU'RE A JERK. YOU KNOW THAT! **Sari walked over the sparkling and Prime watched her.

"**YOU KNOW SOMETHING ELSE PRIME, IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO CLAIM HER…"** Sari breathed in as much air as she could.

"…**THEN I WILL!" **With that Ratchet walked over to the sparkling who for the moment had stopped crying and picked her up. As unsure of Ratchet as she was, she still allowed being in his servos. In some respects it was somewhat…comforting. Ratchet shot one look of disapproval to Prime then walked to the med bay with the sparkling still in his servos and Sari did the same leaving Prime dumbfounded and alone in a silence.


	5. Chapter 5

***Author's note: This chapter contains slight smut content so BEWARE.***

Meanwhile in the med lab it was no better. The sparkling sat alone on the berth still in tears while Ratchet and Sari talk quietly in the doorway.

"Ratchet, what do we do now?" Sari looks up at him unsure.

"Well, it would probably be wise to first calm the poor kid down. After that's done, I'll go try to talk some sense into Prime." Ratchet walked away from Sari and into the med lab over to the berth that the sparkling was sitting on. Ratchet grabbed the nearest cleaning towel and bent down next to the infant. She then looked up from the floor still crying.

"He doesn't want me here, does he?" The tears rolled down her cheeks harder.

Ratchet flattened the towel in his fist and began to wipe away the tears.

"Honestly kid, I don't know what he wants. But there's no use in leaking over it."

The little bot looks up at Ratchet confused but optics dry. "What do you mean?"

"I'll grant it kid that what he did or said wasn't very Autobot, but, you also have to understand that he's probably just as confused about this as you are."

The child again looked to the floor. "I guess that makes sense."

Ratchet bent down to look at the child's face. "Yeah it probably would." Ratchet stood up and sighed. "Look, I'm going to go talk to Prime. Sari you stay here and keep her company until I come back."

Ratchet walked out of the room leaving the sparkling and Sari alone once again. The sparkling looked up. Sari tried to give the child a reassuring smile which seemed to work for the sparkling smiled back before pulling her knees up to her face and bowing her head into them.

When Ratchet walked into the recreational room of the base, Prime was in the same exact spot he had left him in and was just staring into open air before noticing he wasn't alone.

Prime immediately straightened up and was going to say something but nothing seemed to come out of his mouth. Before long he finally found his voice. "Ratchet I -."

Ratchet put a servo up in the air. "Now you just stop right there Prime. I don't want to hear an apology because frankly I'm not the one you should be apologizing to…"

Prime seemed silent for a few nano-clicks before speaking. "But Ratchet I -."

Ratchet interrupted abruptly. "You what Prime? Still can't quite comprehend the fact that you're a sire or the fact that you can't remember who it was you did it with to become a sire." Ratchet sighed. "You're a smart kid Prime, but lately, I never would have guessed that you would be acting this dumb."

Prime looks away for a long time before looking back at Ratchet.

"Ratchet I just-."

Ratchet places a servo on Prime's shoulder. "Prime I'm not talking to you as a medic; I'm talking to you as a friend. Now for all our sakes you HAVE to try to remember."

Prime was silent for a long time, just thinking. Sari walked into the room and over to Ratchet. Both Prime and Ratchet looked down at her. Sari looked at them like she had just hit the jackpot.

"Uh, guys I think I might have found something that will help Prime remember…"

Both Prime and Ratchet looked at each other before speaking at the same time.

"Well?"

Sari got a wide grin across her face. "The kid said that her mother's name is StarRacer."

Sari turned to Prime. "Does that name sound at all familiar to you big guy?"

Sari hesitated. "Prime, are you ok?"

Whether it be a matter of fact or opinion that Prime was alright is up to you. But I find it wise to inform you that just then, Prime looked almost sick to his fuel tank. Well that and he looked like he had seen a ghost. The name StarRacer was indeed familiar. Prime couldn't help but fall back onto the couch in shock and disbelief.

Sari turned to Ratchet and Ratchet turned to Prime.

"Kid, do you recognize that name?"

Prime was silent.

"Prime?" Ratchet took a step forward.

Prime looked up at Ratchet.

"Do you recognize the name?"

Prime slowly but surely nodded.

Ratchet looked at Prime as he seated himself next to him.

"How?"

Prime looked up and looked away.

"Where do you want me to start?"

_Back at Cybetron eight thousand vorns ago. Optimus being a young bot that had just passed his tests required to join the Academy for the Elite guard had passed with flying colors. So he and some friends of his who were going to be in the same quadrant decided they were going to a party. Optimus knowing there was going to be energon there didn't want to go. But out of fear of being called a coward by Sentinel, went anyway. There must have been hundreds of bots in one warehouse building talking, laughing, drinking energon and doing very inappropriate things with each other. Optimus wanted to leave…badly. _

"_Come on Sentinel, let's get out of here, there's got to be better things to do then this."_

_Optimus was standing next to Sentinel in a crowded room. Optimus was not having fun at all. Sentinel on the other hand was having the time of his life considering he was surrounded by beautiful femmes who considered Academy bots extremely attractive even though Sentinel wasn't in the Academy yet. Sentinel trying to sound good for his lady's._

"_Well, if you wanna leave, go ahead…I'm having fun."_

_And with that Sentinel walked away with a dozen laughing femmes. Optimus being disgusted and humiliated by Sentinel's actions had to get out of that room. He would rather be anywhere but there at the moment. Optimus weaved his way through the crowded hallways of laughing mechs and femmes; even passing a fight or two. He came to a long stair well that led to the roof. No one would be up there. _

_He got up to the roof and sure enough, no one was there, or at least, from what he could see at first._

"_Wanted to get away from the party?"_

_Optimus whipped around to see a femme sitting against a wall. And what a femme indeed! Optimus couldn't help but stare at her. She looked so…..beautiful. She was a small femme but beautiful none the less. She was a few inches shorter than Optimus with blue and black armor. She had a headset somewhat similar to Optimus' but her headset had large panels behind it coming down (almost like having short hair). Her optics were unlike anything he had ever seen in his life. They were blue like his but with small traces of purple. He was so captivated by the way she looked; what with the gentle curves of her figure that he didn't realize she was talking to him._

"_Hey big guy!"_

_Optimus looked up to realize she's talking._

"_Are you ok?"_

_All Optimus could do was nod his head._

"_Did you hear anything I said?"_

_Optimus being a little bashful. "No,…not really…sorry."_

_This made the femme laugh thus making Optimus laugh. Her laugh was like a harmonious symphony of angels to Optimus' audio receptors._

"_I said would you like some energon?"_

_Optimus a bit puzzled. "Energon?"_

_Her gentle smile makes Optimus smile. "Yeah, some idiot left a bunch of energon cubes up here and must have forgotten about them."_

_Optimus approached the femme, nervous of course. "Really?"_

"_Yeah, and I figure it would be a shame to let it go to waste." The femme noticed that Optimus was a bit nervous. While lightly tossing an energon cube to him. "Hey, come sit down…I don't bite."_

_Optimus took the invitation out of sheer courtesy. He seated himself next to the femme and opened a corner of the energon cube and took a drink._

_The femme did the same._

"_So, you gotta name?"_

_Optimus nodded while still drinking the energon._

_She leaned closer to him._

"_Are you going to tell me what it is?"_

_Optimus pulled the energon away from his mouth and whiped his face._

"_My name is Optimus .What's yours?"_

_The femme leaned back against the wall and gazed upon Cybertron's two satellites._

"_It's StarRacer."_

_For a long time Optimus and StarRacer sat up on that roof just talking and laughing. Optimus had told her about the tests and the fact that he's going to be in the Academy, and that his friends had dragged him to this party even though he didn't want to go. StarRacer told Optimus about her as well. Apparently she was in training to be an informational division of the Cybertron Council. But as time progressed and the more they talked, the more energon they drank which eventually caused them to be over energized. And when Optimus is over energized, he can't quite distinguish the information he thinks, and the information he says._

_With a little bit of a stutter in his voice. "You're a really pretty femme, you know that? *hic*"_

_StarRacer as equally over energized. "You don't *hic* mean that."_

_Optimus turns to StarRacer. "No I do.*hic* I really do…you're the most *hic* beautiful femme I've ever seen in my*hic* life."_

_StarRacer looks at Optimus. "Really? You mean that?"_

_Optimus nods his head franticly with his eyes closed and a huge smile on his face._

_StarRacer is quiet for a moment then smiles looking at Optimus before lightly kissing him on the cheek plate and throwing her arms around his shoulders._

_Optimus flinches but doesn't pull away. "Hey, what was that for?"_

_StarRacer giggles. "I don't know, I guess I just like you. *hic* You're a really nice mech, ya' know that?"_

_Optimus laughs and sighs. Quite a few nano-clicks pass before StarRacer breaks the silence thus waking Optimus from the light stasis he had fallen into._

"_Have you ever interfaced before?"_

_Optimus turns to StarRacer not hearing what she had said._

"_Hm?" _

_She says it again but more stern. "Have you ever interfaced before?"_

_Optimus thinks for a moment before looking back at her not realizing the full extent of the question. "No….have you?"_

_She shakes her head no._

_She looks back at him NOT EVEN THINKING ABOUT THE NEXT QUESTION SHE'S ABOUT TO ASK._

"_You wanna try it?"_

_Optimus thinks for a moment then turns back to her grinning.  
"OKAY."_

"_Okay." She smiles lightly before crawling on top of Optimus and begins kissing him passionately on the lips, cheek and neck. Optimus, wrapping his servos around her waist, does the same. But unlike StarRacer, he ran his tongue along the opening of her mouth, begging for an entrance. Soon they find themselves on their backs in the light of the two satellites in the night sky._

_One thing you readers have to understand is that being over energized is just like being drunk, you do stupid things._

_The next morning Optimus woke up on the roof with the worst hangover he had ever had and couldn't for the life of him remember what he did, but he did remember her….and she…was gone._

Optimus sat on the couch in the base recreation room with his head down. Ratchet and Sari both sat in silence before Optimus spoke again.

"I woke up the next morning with my processor spinning, and she was just…gone. I never saw her again after that, and I've never talked about that night to anyone, ever."

Ratchet stood up and paced for a long time before speaking.

"Did you join sparks with this femme?"

"Well obviously I did otherwise I wouldn't be in this mess!" Optimus stood up and walked over to the window.

Sari looks at Prime. "So what are you going to do now boss bot?"

Prime turns to Sari. "Do I really have a choice?"

Sari turns to Ratchet. "Does he?"

Ratchet looks down at Sari. "Yes, he does…but that depends entirely on what he feel is right."


	6. Chapter 6

The sparkling still sat quiet in the med bay still holding the towel Ratchet had left her with. Prime stood in the shadow of the doorway just watching. Ratchet stood on the opposite side of the doorway also looking at the child.

"It not too late Prime, you know that, right?"

Prime glances at Ratchet then looks back at the child.

"What do you mean?"

Ratchet sighs then leans against the frame of the door.

"Prime, when I first met you, you said that all you wanted to do in life was make a difference…"

Ratchet motioned toward the child who had her back to them.

"…here's your chance."

Prime looked toward the child then gave an unsure glance at Ratchet. Ratchet gently motioned toward the child.

"Go on, it's okay."

With an unsettling feeling in his fuel tank, Prime proceeded to walk into the room. Ratchet watched silently as Prime slowly and silently moved toward the child. He circled the berth and the child looked up. Prime froze, as did the child…but slowly Prime found the courage to put a small smile on his faceplate. The child again looked down at her stabilizing servos. He swallowed hard trying to think of the right words to say. Finding himself in a tongue-tidied situation, he turned to Ratchet for advice. Silently he mouthed the words to him.

"What do I say?"

Ratchet rolled his optics and whispered back.

"It doesn't matter, just say _**something**_."

Prime watched as Ratchet then walked away while closing the door behind him. Prime couldn't help but feel nervous, but as a leader he tried to just shake it off and handle this situation like a mature mech. He swallowed hard.

"So…"

The child, without even looking up. "So…"

Prime rubs the back of his neck. "I guess we've got a lot in common, huh?"

"It appears that way." The child only whispers.

There's a long silence between the two before the child finds the courage to speak again.

"You _did_ know my mother, right?"

Prime freezes. He wasn't quite expecting this question to come about…at least…not for a while.

"Yes, I knew her."

The child looks up. "How well?"

Prime looks down not quite sure how to answer, but figures he should answer truthfully.

"In all honesty kid, I didn't really know her as well as I probably should have, but I spent enough time with her to know…that…she was something special."

The sparkling turned toward him.

"Did you love her?"

Prime for a moment is dumbstruck then becomes calm yet defensive.

"Let me ask you something."

The child is quiet, and then asks.

"What?"

Prime turns to the child.

"How is it you knew about _me_, but I didn't know about _you_? And how is it you even found me anyway?"

The child at first turns away and is quiet before jumping down off the berth and facing Optimus directly.

"It's kind of a long story."

Prime pulls his leg up onto the berth and holds his knee and looks around the room.

"Well, I don't see anyone else around, and I don't have to go anywhere at the moment so…"

Prime leans back against the wall becoming comfortable.

"…I think I have time for a long story."

Apparently this sparkling had been through a lot more than what Prime had first anticipated. When the sparkling was only 5,000 vorns old her mother was killed in a horrible accident at Iacon. You see StarRacer never did become a member of theinformational division of the Cybertron Council, but instead became a waitress at a second grade oil café. Now I'm sure you're wondering; how did that happen? I thought she was going straight to the top? Well, I'll tell you. (Note: The sparkling is telling Prime all this because the sparkling's previous care taker told her the same way.) Meanwhile, somewhere in the universe a femme that StarRacer knew was thinking….

_After StarRacer left, she couldn't help but feel bad that she had left Optimus there like that. She wanted to go back and apologize but was extremely late for a class._

_Inside the University for Cybertronian Commerce, StarRacer's best and closest friend Chromia was waiting for her, annoyed._

"_WERE HAVE YOU BEEN! YOU'RE LATE, YOU KNOW THAT!"_

_StarRacer assending up the stair well._

"_I know, I know and I'm sorry."_

_Chromia hands StarRacer her books._

"_I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU AND I WE WERE GOING TO GO STUDY AFTER THE PARTY! WHERE WERE-."_

_StarRacer cuts in covering her audio receptors._

"_Chromia! Will you PPPLLLLEEEEEAAAASSSSEEE stop yelling! I have the worst hangover ever!"_

_Chromia flinches then smiles slightly, then with a devilish smile._

"_What did you do last night?"_

_StarRacer turns away smiling._

"_Nothing…."_

_Chromia chases her and stops her._

"_StarRacer, you can't lie to me and you know it! Come on, what did you do?"_

_StarRacer smiles devilishly then walks away not saying a looks away and giggles._

"_Okay, what's his name?"_

_StarRacer whips around with a look of just being caught._

"_What are you talking about?"_

_Chromia slides over and then passes StarRacer._

"_Oh, I think you know."_

_StarRacer puts her servos on her hips._

"_Really?"_

_Chromia whips around._

"_Oh please. I know you better than that. Whenever you act like this you've usually met a mech that you think you like but you eventually break up with."_

"_But Chromia, this one's different, he's sweet, gentle, charming, honest, and actually…really, really cute"_

_Chromia points to StarRacer with satisfaction._

"_HA! I KNEW IT!"_

_StarRacer covers her mouth with one finger._

"_SHHHHHHHHHHHH Chromia! Someone will hear you!"_

_They walked down the hallway quietly looking for tutor bots. Chromia leans over to StarRacer._

"_So what did you two talk about?"_

_StarRacer shrugged._

"_Stuff….."_

_Chromia agains smiles devilishly._

"_Or was there not a lot of talking?"_

_StarRacer couldn't help herself. Even when she's over energized, she surprisingly has a good memory. She told Chromia EVERYTHING. The talking, the energon…the kiss, EVERYTHING._

_Chromia was in disbelief._

"_You interfaced with a mech you barely knew? Holy Primus, I'm not even that stupid! Do you realize what femmes are going to say?"_

"_No bot else knows but you!"_

"_StarRacer, please tell me you didn't join sparks with him, because if you did then you could possibly-."_

_StarRacer interrupts._

"_I KNOW!...I know. Look I don't…think…I did. But, then again…I really can't remember."_

_Chromia sighs. "Come on, let's get to class."_

_In Earth terms: two months passed and no matter how hard StarRacer searched for Optimus, she just couldn't find him, but that was least of her worries. The more time that passed, the more she got the feeling that something was very wrong. She felt sick to her tank all the time, she was having uncontrollable mood swings, she was having cravings for fuels she didn't usually drink, and she was tired…ALL THE TIME. She even found herself falling asleep in class. But it was Chromia to first say something about these frequent changes. _

_It was late one night in the apartment that Chromia and StarRacer shared._

"_StarRacer, are you feeling okay?"_

_While StarRacer was drinking a barrel of axel grease._

"_What do you mean?"_

_Chromia approaches StarRacer._

"_StarRacer, you've been acting strange lately and you've got me worried."_

_StarRacer rolls her optics while looking away. Chromia puts a hand on her shoulder._

"_StarRacer…you're my best friend and you know you can tell me anything, right?"_

_StarRacer sighs and smiles at Chromia._

"_I know I can, but I'm fine…really."_

_But she wasn't fine and soon….she would find out._

_ It was in the middle of class while taking an extremely important test that StarRacer had an…incident. When she began class, she was fine, never had been better. But as time passed she became nauseous. At first it was nothing serious but as time progressed the sickness got worse. Her tank was churning beyond belief causing extreme pain and discomfort. Even Chromia could see the pain written on her faceplate who was sitting next to her the whole time._

_Chromia looked to make sure the tutor wasn't watching before she leaned over to StarRacer. She whispered into her audio receptor._

"_Are you okay?"She sounded extremely worried. "You don't look so good."_

_StarRacer sits there for a moment before answering._

"_Yeah…yeah I'm….I'm fine."_

"_No you're not StarRacer. Maybe you should go see the medic."_

"_Chromia I'm fine."_

_For a short period of time every bot continued to test but the feeling of discomfort was growing worse by the nano-click until finally Chromia couldn't take it anymore._

_Chromia threw her hand up in the air. StarRacer glared at Chromia in anger, horror, and humiliation because the rest of the class was looking at her._

_The teacher turned his attention to Chromia and StarRacer._

"_Yes ladies, is there something I can help you with?"_

_StarRacer sank down into her seat. All optics were on them and that was making her sickness worse._

"_It's StarRacer sir, she needs to see the medic right away."_

"_Oh and why's that?"_

"_Well-."_

_But before Chromia could answer, StarRacer stood up…walked casually to the nearest trash can and….blew a gasket, in other words…vomited._

_Chromia looked around the class room to see mechs pointing and laughing and femmes turning away in disgust. Chromia turned back to the teacher._

"_That's why."_

_Less than a half a mega-cycle later, StarRacer and Chromia were sitting outside the medic office._

_Chromia shyly smiled at StarRacer._

"_I told you that you should have come here."_

_StarRacer turns to Chromia defensive but soon smiles._

"_Shut up."_

_Chromia giggles._

"_Ya' gotta admit, the look on MoonRacer's face was pretty funny."_

_Chromia laughs harder. StarRacer shakes her head._

"_I didn't see MoonRacer, Chromia, all I saw was the bottom of the trash can."_

_They both burst out into laughter as the nurse opened the door._

_The nurse holds up a clipboard._

"_StarRacer?"_

_Chromia and StarRacer both stood up. The nurse walks over to them._

"_Which one of you is designated as StarRacer."_

_Chromia points to StarRacer._

"_She is."_

_The nurse nodded her head. "I'm going to need you to come with me."_

_StarRacer hesitates. "Wait! Isn't Chromia coming with me?"_

_The nurse turns to Chromia. "How are you feeling today young lady?"_

_Chromia shrugs her shoulders. "Fine, why?"_

_The nurse shifts on her stabilizing servos. "So I guess that you're well enough to go back to class?"_

_Chromia is silent. The nurse takes StarRacer through the doors into a hallway of med labs leaving Chromia behind._

_The nurse had asked StarRacer to lie down on a berth as she took fuel samples, checked her core temperature, scanned for computer viruses or any other possible anomalies. She was alone in that room wondering what was going to happen next. The nurse walked back into the room holding a stack of papers. This can't be good. _

"_Well, I checked for viruses, glitches in your systems and anything else I could think of, but everything showed up negative…well… except one test."_

_StarRacer sat up._

"_What?"_

_The nurse pulled up a chair._

"_Before I tell you, it's mandatory for me to ask a couple of questions, and please answer truthfully."_

_StarRacer shifts positions. "Okay."_

_The nurse pulls the chair over to the side of the berth._

"_Have you within the past two giga-cycles of this stellar-cycle, interfaced with a mech?"_

_StarRacer looked down at the floor humiliated and embarrassed._

"_I'll take that as a yes." The nurse got up from her chair and activated her comm. link. __**"Red Alert to Slipstream: I've got a code 2661783 under directive 511792, requesting orders…" **_

_Soon StarRacer heard a voice come over the nurse's comm. link, __**"Slipstream to Red Alert: Message received, take femme to room 26616 for further instructions."**_

_StarRacer flinches. "Wait, what? What's a code 2661783? Why do I have to go somewhere else? What's going on?"_

_But before the nurse could explain, StarRacer was being lead out of the med lab through the universities winding hallways. Eventually she ended up in front a large metal door with the numbers: 2 6 6 1 6 on it. The nurse turned to StarRacer._

"_He's waiting for you…."_

_Slowly StarRacer walked over to the door and it opened automatically. Inside was a large desk littered with papers, behind the desk she saw a large black and silver bot reading something on a data pad. The mech looked up._

"_Ah, Miss StarRacer, please come and sit down."_

_She did as she was told. He rustled and organized a stack of papers in front of him. They were the same papers that the nurse had just had._

_As StarRacer sat down. "Sir, if you don't my asking, have I done something wrong?"_

_The mech looked up at her. "The nurse tells me that you blew a gasket in class, is that true?"_

_StarRacer shrugs. "Well yes, but what does this have to do with me being called here?"_

_The mech stands up, walks over to the window and sighs. "Miss StarRacer, do you know what a code 2661783 is?"_

_StarRacer shook her head. "No."_

_The mech sits back down at his desk. "A code 2661783 under directive 511792 is only given to a femme when needed to be suspended from the university."_

_StarRacer stands up abruptly. "WHAT? Suspended! WHY?"_

_The mech just looks at StarRacer calmly. "Miss StarRacer, do you know what these test results are?"_

_Becoming snippy StarRacer sits down again. "NO!"_

_The mech seeming unaffected. "The nurse didn't tell you?"  
StarRacer seemed annoyed. "Tell me what?"_

_The mech stood up thus shadowing StarRacer."Miss StarRacer, I don't appreciate your rude behavior!" The mech sits down. "Now then, back to business."_

"_I'm not going to beat around the hub cap, so I'm just going to come out and say it…..StarRacer…you are as of now…..2 giga-cycles pregnant. And according to Cybertronian law, we cannot allow you to keep coming to school. The council believes that now that you're carrying a sparkling, it is your responsibilities to train yourself to be a good mother… for the future of Cybertron's sake." _

_For a long time there was nothing but silence._

_The mech leaned forward._

"_Miss StarRacer, are you alright?"_

_StarRacer was quiet for a long time before looking up almost crying._

"_I'm….pregnant?"_

Meanwhile back with Optimus and the sparkling, the child had just finished telling Optimus about her mother's death (which we haven't heard about yet but we will). For the sparkling, it was hard to tell, but she eventually got it out.

Optimus sat there in udder shock. "Oh ….poor StarRacer."

The sparkling sat on the berth in silence. Optimus looked down at the child.

"And she never gave you a name?"

The sparkling shook her head.

Optimus stood up and leaned up against the wall just in front of the sparkling.

"Well, then that's the first problem we have to solve."

The sparkling looked at him curiously.

"What problem?"

Optimus grins softly. "The name problem, you can't just be called little one or baby for your whole life, you need a title for bots to remember you by."

Optimus stood up and paced the floor for a long time. He stopped a couple times but then started pacing again. Before stopping suddenly.

"I've got it! How about …..RainDancer."

The sparkling shook her head.

"No, it sounds too…girly."

Optimus starts pacing again.

"Ok, how about…FireStorm."

Again the sparkling shakes her head.

"Na, too tough."

Optimus stroked his chin."Phoenix?"

"No."

"Crystal Light?"

"No."

"Comet?, StarFire? StarChaser..."

The sparkling looked up.

"Wait, what was that last one?"

Optimus looks up dumbfounded.

"StarFire?"

The sparkling shakes he head.

"No, the other one."

Optimus tilts his head.

"StarChaser?"

The sparkling smiles.

"It sounds like my mom's name."

Optimus thinks for a moment, then laughs.

"Yeah, I guess it kind of does,… why… is that what you want your name to be?"

She looks down and smiles.

Optimus smiles too.

"Then that's your name." Optimus put his large hand on the sparkling's hand. "From this day forward your name is not kid, little one, or baby… from now on…it's StarChaser."


	7. Chapter 7

***Author's Note: I do not own the song lightning crashes by live***

It had been only a mere few days and Optimus was already starting to fall for the sparkling but didn't show it. I mean come on, who wouldn't fall for a cute sparkling like that? As the days went by, StarChaser was soon accepted as one of their own but had yet to truly be taken as: OPTIMUS PRIME'S DAUGHTER.

Everyone was sitting in the recreation room. StarRacer had just gotten the hang of being an "earth kid". She had already been taught lots of things by none other than Sari and Bumblebee. She had learned how to do lots of things; play hockey, , baseball, soccer and her most favorite thing… videogames. But the one thing she loved the most about Earth customs… was music. She loved it all; hip-hop, rap, slow rock, heavy rock, country, indie, orchestra, alternative rock, the blues, jazz, everything. Often times you could find her in the rec. room listening to the music channel. Optimus didn't much care for music, but in a sense found it interesting. He walked into the rec. room and StarChaser was listening to a song. It's lyrics slowly drifted through Optimus' processor, every word sinking in:

'**lightning**** crashes, a new mother cries  
her placenta falls to the floor  
the angel opens her eyes  
the confusion sets in  
before the doctor can even close the door**

lightning crashes, an old mother dies  
her intentions fall to the floor  
the angel closes her eyes  
the confusion that was hers  
belongs now, to the baby down the hall

oh now feel it comin' back again  
like a rollin' thunder chasing the wind  
forces pullin' from the center of the earth again  
I can feel it.

lightning crashes, a new mother cries  
this moment she's been waiting for  
the angel opens her eyes  
pale blue colored iris,  
presents the circle  
and puts the glory out to hide, hide…'

The music continued to play softly as StarChaser sat in silence. Optimus slowly walked into the room trying not to startle the child. As he slowly approached, he could see the StarChaser was lying on the couch holding a very large blue teddy bear that Sari had given her. A slow stream of energon tears ran down her face plate. Optimus slowly approached and rested his shoulders on the back of the couch.

"StarChaser?"

The child whom was lying on her side rolled over and looked up at Optimus. The stains from crying still quite visible. He came around to the front of the couch and leaned down in front of the child whose eyes were fallowing him the whole time.

"Hey, are you okay?"

The child whipped the tears from her optics.

"I-I just miss my mom…that's all."

Optimus gently smiled down at the child and reached for a nearby towel. He used it to wipe the tears away as gingerly as possible. After the tears were gone he gave her a reassuring smile. The child looked down and away for a moment or two before leaning forward to rest her head on his chest plate. Optimus being a bit shocked at this sudden action flinched a bit but relaxed and softened at the sound of small whimpers coming from the child. He pulled the child away from his chest plate and leaned down to her optic level.

"Hey, it's okay. You're safe now…"

StarChaser smiled and looked up into Optimus' optics.

"Optimus?"

Optimus sat on the floor next to StarChaser.

"What?"

StarChaser started playing with her thumbs before looking back up at him.

"Do I look like my mom?"

Optimus looked at StarChaser before smiling.

"Yes, you do look like your mother. Why do you ask?"

She looked away giggling.

"Because momma always said to me that I looked and acted more like you."

Optimus looked down at StarChaser with curiosity.

"Really?"

Again the sparkling giggled making Optimus laugh slightly.

Optimus looked off into space then back at the sparkling.

"Why did you come looking for me, I mean there has to be plenty of femmes on Cybertron who would take in a cute sparkling like you."

He looked down at her smiling who in turn smiled back.

"I guess because deep down, all I've ever wanted was…" She looked up at him smiling shyly. "…my daddy."

Optimus' sense of mech-hood and leadership for a split nano-click seemed to just fade away. An almost warm sensation seemed to take over his spark. But soon Optimus came back to reality.

He shook his head slightly to regain consciousness.

"Uh, um, it's uh, it's getting late. Maybe you should go to power down."

StarChaser gets up on her stabilizing servos.

"Oh Optimus, do I have to?"

Optimus also rises to his stabilizing servos.

"Yes, you do."

StarChaser had realized she was beat, so slowly but surely, she made her way to her room.

Optimus yelled after StarChaser.

"StarChaser?"

She turns around.

"Yes Optimus?"

Optimus hesitates but eventually gives a warm smile.

"Good night."

She smiles in return.

"Good night…"

Optimus walks away as does StarChaser whispering.

"…..dad."

That night was hard for Optimus because pleasant dreams as well as nightmares haunted him the whole night. He didn't know what he was seeing, but somehow he got the feeling that what he saw was somehow the truth.

_ StarRacer was sitting in the apartment watching Cybertron going on about its normal routine when she looks down at her chest. She could feel as the child's sparks developed close to her own. It had been six giga-cycles since StarRacer had been told of the coming sparkling and was only one giga-cycle from delivering. In that time, StarRacer had looked high and low over Cybertron for Optimus but no matter how hard she searched, she couldn't find "hide nor hair" of him. After 7 weeks straight of searching she eventually just gave up and worried about the more important things at hand. But as she sat by that window stroking her chest, she couldn't help but think about….him._

_Chromia walks in the door carrying a case of axel grease._

"_Hey! I didn't think I'd see you up and moving around. Whatever, it doesn't matter, listen, I've got some axel grease…you want some?"_

_StarRacer looks away from the window._

"_Na, I'm fine…but thanks anyway."_

_Chromia sets the case of fuel down on a nearby table and pulls up a chair next to StarRacer._

"_Hey, are you feeling okay?"_

_StarRacer looks at Chromia and smiles. "Yes, I feel just fine…it's just that…"_

_StarRacer looks back out the window in the direction towards the Academy._

_Chromia rolls her optics._

"_I know, I know…. You wish he could be here."_

_Later that night, StarRacer was tossing and turning in pain and discomfort until finally she just got up off her berth. She sat in the living room looking out at Cybertron City at night. But the pain kept getting worse. Chromia had gotten up out of bed to get a barrel of oil when she noticed StarRacer sitting up._

_Chromia yawned and rubbed her optics_.

"_StarRacer?...What's the matter?"_

_StarRacer turned to Chromia with a worried and painful expression on her faceplate._

"_Chromia,… it's time."_

_It was extremely early in the morning and StarRacer was screaming out in pain and agony. Both Chromia and StarRacer had gone to the nearest hospital as soon as StarRacer had said she was ready and now were in a room, only it was Chromia who was in pain because of listen to StarRacer complain._

_StarRacer paced back and forth through the room with her hand on her chest crying out in pain._

"_ARRRRGGGGHHHH, WHEN AM I GONNA BE ABLE TO GET RID OF THIS KID! IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY! OW,OW, OW,__**FRAGGIN OW!"**_

_Chromia sat there reading a data pad obviously annoyed with both StarRacer and the medics, (but mostly the medics)._

"_Just be patient, the doctor will be here soon."_

_StarRacer just paced more through the room._

"_WELL THEY BETTER HURRY UP 'CAUSE THIS KID'S GONNA BE COMING OUT ANY NANO-CLICK!"_

_Just then the medic walked in. Immediately Chromia was relieved._

"_It's about time you show up, she's starting to drive me crazy!"_

_StarRacer growls. "Easy for you to say, you're not the one in labor here! And who the slag are you?"_

_The medic laughs. "My name is Wheeljack, and I'll be the one performing the delivery."_

_StarRacer asks worriedly. "Wait, what happened to Preceptor?"_

_The medic looks down at a data pad. "He's been called to service by Ultra Magnus himself, but don't worry, I know what I'm doing."_

_He walked over to a berth. "Now, can you please lie down, we need to do some scans on the sparkling."_

_StarRacer did she was told, she lied down on the berth and tried to relax but couldn't because of the growing pain._

"_So doc, how long until we have a green light?"_

_Wheeljack observed the screens displaying the scans. Sighing he looked at StarRacer._

"_You are not yet dilated enough; the child's spark is not yet far enough away from yours to perform surgery. If we did the surgery now, it could possibly kill your sparkling."_

_StarRacer sighed. "How long?"_

_As Wheeljack left the room. "I'm not sure exactly how long, but….soon."_

_He was right, it didn't take very long at all before the pain was too much to handle. Wheeljack had returned into the room to StarRacer with a small infant like protoform in his hands. He set it on a table close to StarRacer._

_Wheeljack approached the berth and scanned StarRacer._

"_It's ready to be sparked." he stated, earning a __don't-you-think-we-already-know-that__ look from his patient and her friend. _

"_Now, StarRacer, I'm going to open your sparkchamber and reach in. And then I'll pull the spark out. Are you ready?"_

_StarRacer nodded her head. Chromia took StarRacer's hand in hers, and placed her other hand on her shoulder. Then Wheeljack opened the plates to her sparkchamber._

"_Okay, on my mark. One, two, THREE!" then he reached his hand into StarRacer's sparkchamber and cupped the tiny spark within his palms. It was very painful for StarRacer, who practically crushed her friend's hand harder, crying out in pain._

_Soon Wheeljack pulled his hand out and walked over to the table where he had the protoform body lying on. He opened the protoform's chestplates and placed the spark inside. There was a bright glow. Then he shut its chestplates._

_After few seconds the protoform started to move. Little feet kicked and fists twitched open. Little whimpering and cries were heard. _

_Wheeljack scanned the sparkling before picking it up. Then he turned around to face StarRacer and Chromia with a smile on his face._

"_Congratulations, StarRacer. You have a little femme."_

_StarRacer couldn't answer. She was in shock as well as awe at what she saw. It was a very tiny femme with red and blue armor with features similar to that of…her father. Wheeljack very carefully placed the newborn into StarRacer's shaking arms. How could she have given life to something so beautiful? The little femme lay in her mother's arms looking up at her with her with her father's eyes. Chromia slowly bent down next to StarRacer and the newborn._

"_StarRacer, she's beautiful."_

_StarRacer smiles; not even looking away from her newborn daughter._

"_I know…."_

_Wheeljack asks Chromia to accompany him to sign some data pads. After one more glance at StarRacer and the baby, she leaves._

_StarRacer smiles at the sparkling and laughs quietly and whispers._

"_If your daddy were here, he'd be in love."_

_Five thousand vorns had passed since that day, and StarRacer had gotten a job as a waitress at a local oil café. She made medium wage, you know, just enough to supply a 5,000 vorn old femme that made every solar cycle worth getting up for._

_It was in the middle of the afternoon while she was serving customers when Chromia walked in holding an absolutely adorable red and blue sparkling with the cutest smile in the universe. Immediately the sparkling threw her arms up in the air and squealed "mommy!" _

_StarRacer yelled to the bots in the back that she was going on break as took her sparkling from Chromia's arms._

_Chromia sighs. "She's been whining that she wants her mommy all day long."_

_StarRacer looks down at the little femme who was putting her hands on her mother's face giggling at her expressions._

_The little sparkling just giggled with joy at her mother's playfulness and StarRacer laughed because the sparkling started laughing first._

"_So has my baby girl been behaving for Chromia today?"_

_She just giggled and cuddled into her mother's chest plate. StarRacer sighs. "I'll take that as a no." She looks up at Chromia._

"_Ah, you know kids…some days they're too good to be true and other days they seem like little demons. But don't worry, she's just a little ornery today, that's all."_

_StarRacer cuddles closer to her sparkling. "Then I guess she's becoming more like me every day. Maybe I should-."_

_A voice in the back room is heard. "StarRacer! You're not paid to stand around!"_

_StarRacer yells back. "Okay! Okay, I'm going!" She sighs handing the sparkling back to Chromia. "You two will be okay, right?"_

_Chromia smiles taking the sparkling. "Yeah we'll be fine."_

_StarRacer puts her hands around the sparkling's face and puts her forehead against the sparkling's. "I love you, my little sweet spark…"_

_The sparkling giggles. "I wuv you too mommy."_

_The voice in the back room is again heard. "STARRACER!"_

_StarRacer yells back. "OKAY, I'M GOING!"_

_She turns back to the sparkling and Chromia. "Bye."_

_Chromia nods and walks away with the small sparkling waving good bye over her shoulder._

_Later that evening on her way back to the apartment, StarRacer was passing Iacon when all at once there was a huge explosion. Dust and debris flew in all directions making it impossible to see. StarRacer for the longest time couldn't see but froze when she heard someone yelling for help. As the dust cleared, she noticed that there was a small residential building on fire, and in the building there was a young bot screaming for help._

_Without thinking, StarRacer jumped through the window into the burning structure. She screamed through the fire and smoke. "WHERE ARE YOU?"_

_At first all StarRacer could hear was the cracking and breaking sounds of the building becoming more and more unstable. That's when she heard the voice. "Please, someone help me!"_

_StarRacer moved burning beams out of her path and moved through the smoke. "Keep talking to me!"_

"_I'm here! I'm here!" The voice screamed back._

_StrarRacer weaved through winding hallways fallowing the voice until coming to a locked door. Without hesitating she kicked the door in but was violently thrown back by the back draft. The flames completely engulfed the room but the voice was definitely coming from inside. She jumped through the scorching flames and landed face first on the other side. There she found a terrified mech just a little older then her own sparkling. She crawled over to the petrified sparkling._

"_It's going to be alright, I'm going to get you out of here."_

_She picked the sparkling up and turned around to once again face the wall of fire blocking the door. She looked down at the sparkling who was burying his face in her chest. She looked up from him and all at once threw herself through the flames. Once again emerging on the other side, she immediately looked for an exit. She tried to retrace her steps back out but the smoke was too thick. But then she saw a light at the end of the hallway. She could feel relief coming but soon thought otherwise when she heard another voice calling for help, by the sound of it, it was a femme. She put the little mech down and pointed towards the light._

"_GO!"He turned around scared and confused."What about you?"_

_She turned to him obviously going the other way. "I'll come back as soon as I get her!" She pointed down the hall, and then ran towards the voice._

_The mech obeyed her orders and got out. Many other bots had gathered at the sight of the fire. The mech's creator was outside crying but was relieved to see him come out of the smoke._

"_Oh darling are you all right?"_

_But before the sparkling could answer his creator's question, there was another large explosion, so large that it made the ground they were standing on shake. Flying out of the inferno thus landing at the feet of the sparkling was a small shard of blue and black armor…._

Optimus opens his optics abruptly. He sits up not understanding or believing what he's just seen. Did he really just see the birth of his daughter and the death of StarRacer? Just then he heard an "oil-curdling" scream. It was coming from StarChaser's room.


	8. Chapter 8

**Just a short fluffy chapter for your reading pleasure**

Optimus' first instinct was to run as fast as his stabilizing servos could carry him to StarChaser's room, which is exactly what he tried to do but tripped over a hub cap on the floor in his room. After a few nano-clicks of cursing, he again rose to his stabilizing servos and proceeded to StarChaser's room. He found her sitting in a startled up right position crying…. hard.

"StarChaser! What happened?" Optimus turned on the light and closed the door as to not to disturb anyone else.

StarChaser didn't say a word. She just sat there and cried, but after whipping her optics she was able to talk somewhat.

"Mom…I-I saw her…dying." She put her face down on her knees and began to cry harder. Without thinking Optimus took the weeping sparkling into his arms and embraced her close to his spark trying to quiet the child's whimpers. StarChaser was surprised by this action but didn't pull away. Instead she pushed closer. They both sat that way for what to StarChaser seemed like eternity but eventually felt this strange yet warm, soothing feeling emanating from the large mech's spark chamber. Optimus looks down at her with the most gentle optics she's ever seen.

He then brought his face closer to the child, almost whispering. "What happened?"

She looked up at him still crying but then looked down and again rests her head against his chest.

"I saw her…as if…she was…" She tried to hold the burning tears back. "…was right here in front of me… then there was a big fireball…and…" Her voice began to crack as the tears came. "…I heard her scream for me."

All at once the tears streamed down her face like a violent water fall. Slowly Optimus wrapped his servos around the weeping sparkling.

He whispers to her. "Hush little one…it's alright…I'm here."

There again was a long silence as StarChaser rested her head against Optimus' chest. But after a while she looked up curiously into his big blue optics.

"I can hear and feel your spark beating." She looked up at him with gentle optics.

He looked down at the shaking sparkling and only smiled. He slowly started to caress StarChaser's cheek plate, and then wiped the tears away. While smiling, she gently rested her head against the big mech's chest once again and seemed as if she was drifting into stasis.

Optimus couldn't help but smile at StarChaser's action because now it seemed like she was actually purring. He could defiantly tell that she was happy and comfortable right where she was.

But…Optimus still felt he too needed a few more mega-cycles of recharge himself. Carefully, Optimus tried to place the now half asleep sparkling back in her berth where she belonged, but couldn't because whenever he tried to let go of her, her grip onto his armor would only become tighter. Apparently, she wasn't going to let go. After twenty Earth minutes of this he finally just gave up and seated himself on her berth and propped himself up with his back against the wall and his stabilizing servos on the berth not trying to disturb the now completely asleep sparkling.

After he was comfortable, he looked down at the sleeping sparkling and then up at the ceiling.

"Optimus, what have you gotten yourself into…"

Just then the sparkling started to stir forcing Optimus to look down.

While yawning. "Optimus?"

He looked down. "What?"

She smiled and rested her head against him. "Thank you…"

Her smile began to fade slightly as she again began to slip into stasis.

Optimus took the hint as he gently began to rock the child back and forth in his arms.

He quietly leaned down and whispered to the now sleeping sparkling.

"….You're welcome….."


	9. Chapter 9

***Author's Note: Everything that is **_**italicized**_** is a thought.***

Ratchet was up early the next morning making his usual rounds and getting those lazy young bots of their afts and working.

Bumblebee walks out into the hallway only half awake. "Ratchet, why do you have to do this EVERY morning?"

Ratchet turns to Bumblebee and grins. "Because it's my job to issue the wakeup call around here, that's why."

Bulkhead walks out of his room rubbing his optics. "Come on doc bot, can't you let us sleep in late once?"

Ratchet turns and grins even more evilly. "No kid, never. Besides I got to go get Prime and the little one up before they start thinking they're on vacation."

With that Ratchet left the still dazed Bumblebee and Bulkhead to start their daily routines as he went to get the two red and blue bots off their berths. Ratchet was thinking he was going to be generous the youngest and would wake her sire first. But when Ratchet opened Prime's door to issue the wake up call, Prime was nowhere to be found. Had he already gotten up? So instead Ratchet ventured to the sparkling's room to ask if she knew. But when he opened StarChaser's door, the sight he saw could warm even the grumpiest of all Cybertronian medics.

StarChaser lay sound asleep in Optimus' arms. And Optimus too was asleep as his back lay against the wall. Ratchet couldn't help but smile at the sight; but they needed to get up.

Ratchet slowly and quietly entered the room.

"Prime, you awake?" Ratchet slowly leaned forward.

Optimus opened a single optic in almost a 'what?' kind of expression. Ratchet leans down beside the berth.

"Have you been in here all night?" Ratchet looks down at the sparkling who's nuzzling into Optimus' chest. Optimus only nods to Ratchet's question then looks down at the sparkling.

Ratchet looks at the sparkling with a confused look then looks at Prime…smiling.

"So, you finally got a hold of this 'sire' thing."

Optimus chuckles then looks at Ratchet smiling.

"Not by a long shot…"

Ratchet and Optimus both start laughing thus causing StarChaser to stir causing Optimus to look down. StarChaser turned away from Optimus' chest struggling to open her tired optics.

Ratchet looks in amusement as StarChaser finally gets her optics open.

"Well, look who decided to wake up along with the rest of us."

Optimus just looked down at the sparkling and smiled warmly.

"Good morning."

StarChaser returned the warm smile before yawning. Apparently it was time to start a new day.

About three mega-cycles later, all Autobots (and sparkling) were up and ready for whatever the day threw at them. Everyone was up doing their morning routines. Watching the news, and drinking a barrel of oil. But this morning was just a little bit different.

Usually ever morning ever since StarChaser arrived; Ratchet would get her a barrel of oil before getting one for himself but this morning had a few changes in store. StarChaser sat patiently for her barrel of oil as she watched TV.

"Here you go kid…"

One barrel of oil was sat next to her. She looked up to say 'thank you Ratchet' but was a little startled and surprised. It wasn't Ratchet…it was Prime. He towered over her but with a warm and somewhat loving smile on his face plate.

He pointed to the oil. "Are you just going to let it sit there, or are you going to drink it?"

Not wanting him to become defensive, she took a large drink of the oil, swallowed then gave an approving smile up to him. He nodded in agreement and walked away.

She looked down into her oil to see a reflection of herself. She sat there thinking:

'_I don't know why I thought it would be bad coming here; everything seems to be going good to me. And Optimus, well, he's no case of axel grease but he IS nice…really nice…'_

Just then Telatran one went off. Prime stopped what he was doing and looked at the monitors. Bumblebee got up off the couch over to Prime.

"What's up boss bot?"

Prime looks down shaking his head.

"Decepticons. They're tearing up old downtown Detroit."

Prime pressed a button on the key board causing the screen to zoom in on the Decepticons.

"What do ya' think they're doing boss bot."

Bulkhead, Prowl and Ratchet also walked over to the screens.

Optimus sighs. "I'm not sure. It could be a trap…it could be an all spark fragment. But either way, we can't allow them to tear up old Detroit."

Bumblebee throws up a servo in the air in approval. "Oh yeah, let's go kick some Decepticon aft!"

StarChaser runs over to the group pushing her way through Ratchet's stabilizing servos to listen in on the conversation.

Prowl looks at Bumblebee shaking his head. "Bumblebee, you can't just go running out onto a battle field without line of action…"

Prime turns to Bumblebee. "Prowls right. We have to have a strategy as so that we're not walking into this blind." Optimus looks at everyone except StarChaser. "We'll go to old downtown Detroit and watch what they're doing. If they do find an All Spark fragment, we'll take it. If not, then we'll gather intel about what there up to. Understood?"

"What about me?" Everyone turns to look at StarChaser. "I wanna go too!"

Everyone laughs except Optimus.

StarChaser looks at them all confused as well as annoyed.

"Well, why not? I've always wanted to see a REAL Decepticon!"

Ratchet looked down at StarChaser.

"Kid trust me when I say, you're better off in life if you never meet a Decepticon."

StarChaser cocked her head to the side.

"Why?"

Prowl crosses his arms while looking down at the child.

"Because Decepticons are extremely dangerous…"

Bumblebee pushes his way past Prowl and looks at StarChaser.

"Well that and that the Decepticons would probably rather slag you then even look at you-."

Optimus steps forward and pushes StarChaser behind his stabilizing servos.

"Alright guys, that's enough. I'd hate to think what this would be doing to her processor."

StarChaser looks up at Optimus. "Actually I think the Decepticons are fascinating."

Optimus turns around and looks down. "Yeah, and that's what worries me."

He turns around and bends down to be optic level with StarChaser. "StarChaser, there are things about the Decepticons that you would never begin to understand…but this you can. Decepticons ARE extremely dangerous and they won't exercise their strengths on you because you're a child, they would kill you if given the chance…and I'm not going to allow them that chance."

StarChaser looks up disappointed. "But I won't get in the way! I'll hide somewhere where they can't see me!"

Optimus looks down, annoyed. "The answer is still no."

StarChaser pleads while throwing up her servos in a 'what' gesture. "But?"

Optimus puts up a hand in meaning to be quiet. "No buts. I'm not putting you in danger and that's final." Optimus stands up and looks over to Sari who's sitting on the arm of the Autobot's cement couch.

"Sari, would you stay here and make sure this one stays out of trouble?" Optimus points to StarChaser standing behind him pouting.

"Yeah boss bot, I can do that." Sari smiles at the disappointed sparkling.

Optimus stands up to address his team. "Good...now that that's settled, Autobots," He looks at StarChaser. "And only ADULT Autobots…TRANSFORM AND ROLL OUT!"

Immediately they all transformed and exited in a hurry to find out what the Decepticons were up to, leaving a dazed Autobot sparkling and a techno-organic to watch her.

It had only been a half a mega-cycle since the guys had left and StarChaser was already bored out of her processor. So, she did the one thing that sounded 'fun' at the time. She lay on the floor face down, pouting. Sari was sitting on the couch reading a magazine when she saw StarChaser on the floor.

"You know pouting isn't going to help you any, right?" Sari put her magazine down and looked at StarChaser.

StarChaser sits upright obviously angry. "I don't get why I couldn't go. It's not like I would have gotten in the way or anything."

Sari leans forward half smiling. "See, that's the thing StarChaser, you kind of have to be in the way in order to see a Decepticon, and if you're in a Decepticon's way, they'll probably kill you."

Sari leans back putting her hands behind her head. "And I really don't think Prime would like that at all, do you?"

StarChaser looks down and away. "No, I guess not."

Sari again leans forward. "Now that that's settled, what do you say to a game of Ninja Nights 3?"

StarChaser shrugs while looking out the window. "I don't care."

Sari turns to grab it from beside the couch. "This game is brand new, just bought it yesterday. I'm sure you're gonna-." But when Sari turned around, StarChaser was gone and the base door was open. "Oh no…."

But things with the Decepticons weren't going any better. Turns out that they were looking for something…an All Spark fragment. So naturally the Autobots had to intervene resulting in a fierce confrontation. Megatron wasn't about to let the Autobots get his quarry. But Optimus wasn't going to let Megatron get it either.

Bumblebee and Prowl had their servos full with Blitzwing while Ratchet and Bulkhead took on Lugnut. And lucky Optimus got to go 'one on one' with Megatron.

Optimus' axe strikes Megatron's swords with a great force causing sparks to fly. "Give it up Megatron! We'll never allow you the fragment!"

Optimus kicks Optimus sending him across an old parking lot. "Autobot, you're really starting to annoy me with your constant interfering!"

Optimus rises quickly and punches Megatron in the face. "That's my job Megatron…"

Just then a small figure runs up behind a wall and slowly peeks around to watch the fight. It was StarChaser.

'_Wow! Real Decepticons! This is so cool!'_

She stood behind the wall and watched with fascination as well as awe.

'_Gee, Bumblebee and Prowl look like they've got their servos full. And Bulkhead and Ratchet don't look any better, and Optimus-.'_

Just then her optics almost doubled in size and excitement and awe filled her processor.

'_Is that…Megatron? The real Megatron? I thought he was just a legend made up to scare sparklings in to behaving?'_

StarChaser rubbed her optics and took another look. Nope he was still there fighting Optimus, wait…Fighting Optimus? She watched as Optimus proudly wheeled his axe at Megatron.

Her awe switched from Megatron to Optimus. How could he take on Megatron like that? Was he just that brave or just THAT crazy?

'_My dad has to be the bravest mech that ever lived…'_ She smiled to herself with pride.

But in watching her father fight the ruthless Decepticon leader, she didn't realize how much danger she was in. Bumblebee and Prowl were having a difficult time with Blitzwing. But they were about to get a little help. Blitzwing was just about ready to fire a heat missile at Bumblebee when Bulkhead used his wreaking ball to hit Blitzwing in the back right as he fired causing his missiles to go in another direction, right toward StarChaser.

Optimus heard Blitzwing cursing and was obligated to look at the path of the missiles but froze in fear when he saw StarChaser.

"**STARCHASER! MOVE!"**

But she couldn't. She was so frozen in fear that she couldn't even if she tried, and believe me she tried.

The missiles hit the wall with such a brute force that it sounded like thunder and was falling right toward StarChaser. Optimus quickly turned to Megatron and struck him with his axe in the chest plate causing Megatron to fall to his knees in pain.

Optimus within a matter of seconds activated the tires on his stabilizing servos and the rocket booster on his axe and raced like lightning to intercept StarChaser. The rubble was only feet way from StarChaser but grabbed her in the nick of time but was lost into a cloud of dust and debris.

Megatron got to his stabilizing servos holding his chest regathering his thoughts. The fragment was gone, in the Autobot's leader's grasp and he was too damaged to fight anymore.

"Decepticons! TRANSFORM AND RISE UP!"

All at once Blitzwing, Lugnut, and even the damaged Megatron transformed into their alternate modes and flew away into the afternoon sky. But the Autobots had no time to celebrate, Prime was buried somewhere in the mess that lay before them.

Bumblebee looks at Ratchet and asks sarcastically. "Where should we start looking?"

But before Ratchet could answer, a pile of bricks began to move and crumble. Then with force, Optimus freed himself from the debris and shook off the dust from his armor. He stood up from the debris holding a shaking and terrified sparkling. But puts her down and holds his shoulder moaning in pain. Prowl walks over to Prime to notice his arm was badly injured.

"Ratchet, he's injured."

Ratchet approached Prime and looked at his shoulder and sure enough it was busted open, sparking and leaking oil.

"Prowl, Bulkhead assist Prime back to the base and get him in the med-bay."

He looked down at the shaking sparkling then at Bumblebee. "Carry the sparkling back to the base Bumblebee."

Ratchet hands StarChaser to Bumblebee then catches up to Prowl and Bulkhead who were practically carrying Prime who handed the fragment to Ratchet.

But as they all walked away, none of them realized they were being watched by a Decepticon jet that just refused to die. He smiled and laughed to himself evilly as he flew away.


	10. Chapter 10

Later that afternoon, Prime and StarChaser were both in the med lab recuperating from the earlier incident with the heat missile. Optimus was sitting on the berth half crouched over as Ratchet worked on repairing his shoulder. StarChaser on the other hand was wrapped in a large blanket on the floor and was in between Bumblebee and Sari. Ratchet had finished repairing Optimus' shoulder when he stepped back to look at it.

"How does that feel Prime?" He looked at Optimus but only saw the side of his face. Prime's vision was more directed to the sparkling on the floor, and the look he had was not good. Ratchet could tell right away the Optimus was upset…very upset.

"Better Ratchet, thank you." He didn't even look at Ratchet, instead he kept the same expression on his face, that, and he kept his optics on StarChaser.

There was a long pause before Optimus finally looked at Ratchet. "Ratchet, do you think you could Sari and Bumblebee out of here, I need to talk to StarChaser…alone."

Immediately StarChaser ducked down behind Bumblebee causing Sari to look at her. She knew she was in trouble. Ratchet turned from looking at StarChaser cowering behind Bumblebee. "Yeah Prime I can do that."

Ratchet began to walk out of the room when he stopped in front of the three on the floor.

"Bumblebee, Sari…lets go."

Bumblebee and Sari both took one last glance at StarChaser before getting up to leave the room.

StarChaser immediately got up to fallow but Ratchet stopped her shaking his head. "You have to stay here little one, it's you he wants to talk to…not us."

Ratchet stood back up and shut the door on his way out leaving StarChaser alone with a very unhappy Prime.

"StarChaser…" His voice echoed through the whole room like thunder. She slowly turned around to see Optimus still crouched over on the berth but looking up at her signaling her to come over to him. "…come…here."

StarChaser didn't want to anger him any more so she did as she was told. She was only a few feet from him when he stood up. Even though Optimus was naturally taller than StarChaser, something about the situation made it seem to StarChaser that Optimus was bigger now than he ever was before. He towered over her like a very dark ominous cloud. He crossed his arms and looked down with one of the coldest stares she's ever seen. Just the way he looked at her made her circuits freeze. She couldn't help but look down at the floor embarrassed…but mostly afraid.

Optimus gets down on his knees not changing his cold stare. "You know you're in trouble, right?" StarChaser nods and only nods. Optimus sighs but then anger becomes more intense. "I am very disappointed in you." She tries to look up but ends up looking away. "I know…"

Optimus gets even more angry. "You disobeyed me, purposely disobeyed an order! And what's worse is that by you being you could have jeopardized the mission!"

StarChaser looked down at her stabilizing servos and started to cry. "I just wanted to see what a real Decepticon was really like."

Optimus throws his hands up in the air angrily and raises his voice. "Yeah, you'll know what they're like after they've put you off-line!"

StarChaser looks up at him angry as well as hurt and starts to argue. "Well maybe if you'd take the time to tell me these things more often, then maybe I wouldn't be so compelled to go look for myself!"

Optimus glares down at her and starts shouting. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THE DECEPTICONS ARE ACTUALLY LIKE?"

StarChaser stood there for a long time just staring at Optimus who stared angrily in return. She could feel the anger, pain and confusion boiling up violently through her fuel lines. But to her credit she held it in. Instead she turned around, away from Prime and proceeded to storm out the door.

Optimus stormed out of the med bay in pursuit, still yelling. "DON'T WALK AWAY FROM ME YOUNG LADY, WE'RE NOT FINISHED!"

StarChaser turned to argue something back but said nothing. Instead, she just turned back around and kept walking.

Optimus was greatly upset by this action, mostly because he wasn't getting the response he wanted. Optimus practically growled then yelled after her. "YOU HAVE TO BE ONE OF THE MOST IGNORANT AND STUBBORN SAPARKLINGS I'VE EVER MET!"

StarChaser just kept walking and our dear Optimus just kept on yelling…loud. "HAVE YOU EVEN HEARD A WORD I'VE SAID?"

Just then Optimus lurched forward and grabbed StarChaser by the arm right under her shoulder. "DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND A WORD I'M TELLING YOU? DO YOU WANT TO BE KILLED?"

StarChaser clawed frantically at Optimus' hand but judging from his grip, he wasn't going to let go. She looked away from him trying to hide the tears but Optimus got in her face and yelled even louder.

"**ANSWER ME!"**

StarChaser turns to him and finally yells back. "NO!"

Optimus looked at her and now spoke in somewhat of a calm yet stern tone. "No, you don't understand?"

StarChaser tries to pull away but is no match for the large mech's strength. "NO!"

Optimus again questions her. "No, you don't want to be killed?"

StarChaser almost screaming while still trying to pull away. "NO!"

Optimus almost screams back. "NO WHAT?"

With just one more attempt she tries to pull herself away but fails miserably. In a whiney tone she cries out. "NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Then all at once she threw herself to the floor face down. She then started to mumble something into the pavement that Optimus wasn't able to catch at first. Optimus leaned down to try to hear what she was saying but couldn't. He sat up annoyed with her because he couldn't understand what she was saying. He sat against the wall in annoyance and started to rub his optics.

"Why do you insist on being so difficult? You're a royal pain in my aft, you know that?"

StarChaser gets up leaving Optimus still on the floor and turns to him angrily. "Then why don't you sell me for a case for axel grease!"

Optimus strikes the ground with his fist. "AT LEAST IT WOULD LISTEN BETTER THAN YOU!"

StarChaser tries to counter Optimus. "Yeah, and you'd like it better too because its sparkles like you!"

Optimus looks up at StarChaser…fuming. "What did you say to me?"

With only an expression of extreme anger, StarChaser tried to leave quietly towards her room. But Optimus gets up abruptly, more mad than ever.

"**WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?"**

StarChaser tried to ignore him as well as the tears building up behind her optics.

Optimus puts up a fist. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? I SAID **WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"**

StarChaser stopped abruptly and turned around with tears streaming down her face plate and almost screamed as loud as her vocalizers could go.

"**I WANT MY MOTHER!"**

She turned and ran as fast as she could into her room thus slamming the doors behind her.

Optimus stood there shocked and in a sense a little hurt. He just stood there dumbfounded for the longest time before he finally gathered the courage to approach the door.

He knocked very gently on Starchaser's door and almost whispered. "StarChaser,…open the door."

There was a long silence. Optimus rested his forehead against the door and whispered gently.

"StarChaser…please…open the door."

Again there is a long silence that seemed like eternity. With his fore head still against the wall, he started pleading.

"StarChaser, I didn't mean to yell at you like that. It's just that…I don't want to lose you…because you're the only piece of your mother that I have left, and I couldn't live with myself if something were to happen to you."

After a minute or two of silence, Optimus heard the sound of small stabilizing servos coming towards the door. Then he heard the door being unlocked, then stabilizing servos running back and jumping on the berth in the room.

Slowly he opened the door and looked inside to see StarChaser turned away from him obviously crying. He slowly walked in and seated himself next to StarChaser.

He sighed as he looked upon the child. "I'm sorry I yelled at you like that, it wasn't fair of me to do that."

StarChaser rolled over to look at Optimus. "No, I should be sorry; I should have never been there in the first place."

There's a long silence between the two before Optimus worked up the nerve to talk again.

"I'm sorry I called you ignorant and stubborn." Optimus looks up sheepishly and smiles then playfully asks. "So, do you still like me?"

StarChaser looks up wiping away the tears. "Of course I still like you."

There is a short pause as StarChaser places her head on her knees. "And you still like me better than a case of axel grease, right?"

Optimus sits closer to StarChaser and takes her into his arms. "Oh StarChaser, of course I do."

Again there is a long silence were StarChaser just sat quiet in Optimus arms but then looked up at him curiously. He looks down realizing he's being watched.

"What?" He raised an eyebrow to her.

She placed her hand on his chest plate and smiled shyly. "Optimus, do you love me?"

Optimus paused for a moment and just looked at the ceiling before smiling to himself and looking down. "I don't know, do you love me?"

StarChaser laughed before looking back up at him. "I asked you first."

Optimus looked down smiling and then put his face right next to hers. "Well, I may not have planned on being a father so soon in my life, but I have to say that…"

Just then the alarms went off and Ratchet ran through the hallway. "Prime, where are you! We have a situation!" Ratchet ran right past StarChaser's door. Optimus yelled shortly after he passed. "Ratchet we're in here!"

Ratchet could be heard turning around and coming back towards the room. He opened the door and saw Optimus and StarChaser. Optimus looks at Ratchet curiously. "What's the matter Ratchet?" Ratchet looked down at the ground and shook his head. "I've got one word for you…Nanosec."


	11. Chapter 11

Mean while over at the Decepticon base, Megatron was taking his latest defeat out on his lackeys.

"HOW COULD THAT PATHEDIC AUTOBOT BEAT ME AGAIN!" Megatron was throwing barrels of oil across the room. One barrel almost hit Blitzwing square in the back of his head, but he ducked quick enough to dodge it. He stood up again and laughed only to get a second barrel thrown at him which hit him dead on.

Blitzwing stood up rubbing the back of his head. "Maybe zey just happen to have a bit of luck on zeir side today?" Blitzwing's face changes from serious to 'hot-headed'. "But next time zey won't be so lucky!"

Lugnut throws up a hand in approval. "Next time we meet the Autobots, they will tremble at the might of the great and mighty Megatron."

Megatron shakes his head. "The next time we meet the Autobots will be the last time they will ever dare stand in my way."He pauses for a while, thinking. "If only there was something I could use against the retched Autobot leader…Oh how I loathe that accursed Autobot!"

"You know Megatron, if you want to beat that Autobot, I may be able to help." A shadow stands in the back corner of the base.

All ammunition from Decepticons loyal to Megatron point at the intruder, including Megatron with his cannon. "Who are you? Show yourself!"

"What's the matter Megatron, don't recognize me?" Starscream steps out from the shadows.

Megatron looks at Starscream curiously. "Starscream, I didn't ever think I would see you again…alive." Megatron smiles and lowers his cannon. "but not for long." Megatron turns to walk away and signals the others to fire. Blitzwing and Lugnut raise their weapons.

Starscream quickly raises a hand. "WAIT!"

Megatron turns to look at Starscream; he's running out of patience. Starscream steps forward. "I know the Autobot's weakness." Megatron steps forward toward Starscream. "Really, and what would that be?"

Starscream grins evilly knowing he has Megatron's attention. "Let's just say that I know of a way that you could literally destroy a piece of his spark…forever."

But back with the Autobots things were looking much brighter… for now. Optimus had captured Nanosec and placed him behind back behind bars where he belonged. And now was back at the base recuperating from his run in with the human villain. That evening was a long one and everyone was exhausted. But mostly StarChaser, for what reason I don't know, she was just…tired. She was sitting on the floor playing Ninja Nights 3 when she had to stop and rubbed her optics. Bumblebee turned and looked at her and asked sarcastically.

"What's the matter kid, you can't handle being beat?"

StarChaser scowls. "No, I just…have something in my optic."

Ratchet leans over to Prime and whispers. "Looks like someone needs to go power down for a while."

Optimus nods and gets up off the couch and walks over to StarChaser. He leans down beside her and smiles. "Are you getting tired?"

StarChaser glares sleepily at Optimus. "No."

Optimus shakes his head and smiles. "Well, I think I'm going to put you in your berth anyway."

StarChaser shakes her head trying to deny it. "But I'm not (*yawn*) sleepy."

Optimus laughs while picking her up into his arms. "Of course you're not."

Optimus excused himself as well as the sleepy StarChaser from the presence of his comrades. He gently cradled StarChaser in his arms as he ventured down the long, dark hallway until he came to her door. Carefully he opened the door while trying not to disturb the child. He walked across the room and laid her down gently onto the berth. She opened her sleepy optics and smiled.

"Optimus I'm not tired."

Optimus gently stroked the child's head and whispered. "How about you argue with me tomorrow."

StarChaser closed her optics and began to slip into stasis. "Okay."

Optimus sat with her just stroking her head until she fell deep into stasis. He then leaned down next to her and put his forehead against hers and whispered softly. "Sweet dreams StarChaser."

The next day was going to be the turning point for Optimus and StarChaser…even though neither one of them knew it. The morning even began strange considering Ratchet actually was feeling generous and let all the 'young bots' sleep in. But even with that StarChaser was the first to get up…and…the first to want her oil. She walked into the recreational area of the base to see if anyone else was up yet, but when she noticed she was alone, then she figured she'd just get her oil herself. But how? She was nowhere near as tall as any of the others, and the shelf was so high. How was she supposed to reach it?

She looked around to see if there was anything she could use. That's when she spotted a couple of old crates next to each other on the other side of the room. She ran over to look at them closer. Yeah, these would work. She pushed the crates all the way across the room. One by one. Then tried to stack them up on each other and stepped back to look and see how far they would reach up. They would definitely reach, but StarChaser had another problem…how was she going to get on the top of the crates?

She growled to herself. "Well, that's not going to work."

"What's the matter kid, can't find a logical way to get your oil?" StarChaser quickly turned to see Ratchet standing behind her with his arms crossed and laughing.

She looks down embarrassed and starts to shuffle her feet. "I'm too short."

Ratchet walks past StarChaser and grabs a barrel and hands it to her. "If you want help with something, just ask."

She looks up smiling. "Thanks doc bot."

He smiles as he reaches over to grab some for himself. StarChaser takes a drink then looks past Ratchet down the hallway, then back up at him. "Ratchet, were is everybody?"

Ratchet turns around to look down the hallway, then turns back to StarChaser. "Well, Bumblebee and Sari went to a local amusement park for the day and Prowl and Bulkhead are on Dinobot Island."

StarChaser looks back down the hallway. "What about Optimus, where's he?"

Ratchet points behind him toward Optimus' door. "Aww, he's still asleep…" Ratchet turns around and starts for Optimus' door. "…but not for long."

StarChaser jumped in front of Ratchet. "Wait doc bot, I'll get him up."

Ratchet for a moment looked shocked but soon smiled and walked away. "Okay kid, if you want to…" He quickly turned around putting up a finger. "Oh, by the way…good luck." He then turned around and walked away laughing to himself; whereas StarChaser stood there dumbfounded.

What did he mean by that? All well, she had to go get her big, dumb mech off his berth and up and moving.

She ventured down the base hallway until she came to Optimus' door. At this point she wasn't sure whether she should go in or not. She had never been allowed in that room before and didn't want to get in trouble. But, then again Ratchet didn't object when she volunteered to wake him up, so… she won't get in trouble, right? She slowly began to open the door.

As she ventured into the room, she was a little bewildered by how dark the room actually was. There were no windows thus making the room incredibly dark making it difficult to see. But after a few nano-clicks, her optics adjusted. She was fascinated by these turn of events and was trying to take every new sight in. I mean there was so much to see, because in all respects, Optimus' room was fascinating even though there wasn't a lot to see.

His room was something different. Even though it was dark, StarChaser took it all in. Everything from the 12-foot tall mirror with the crack down the left side on the right side of the room to the various shelves and silver hubcaps on the walls. She never knew her sire really didn't keep much, she thought that a room was where you were supposed to keep all your possessions. Well, apparently Optimus didn't have much; that was until she saw the large orange box under his berth. What was that? She had never seen anything like it. She slowly approached the box, she carefully extended a hand to touch it but pulled away quickly and flinched at the sound of something moving…up on the berth. StarChaser looked up and could see her sire's face. He was sound asleep. Slowly and quietly she climbed up onto the berth were Optimus lay. She stood there and watched in awe and fascination at the sleeping mech. And watched as he slept quietly. She never really realized how similar she and Optimus actually were. In some ways she admired Optimus but not just for the way he looked, but for the way he acted, with such pride, and humility. Just then Optimus started to move. StarChaser dove off the berth in an effort of not being seen and hid under the berth. After a few moments of silence, StarChaser peeked up over the edge of the berth. Optimus had rolled over and now had his back to her. She shook her head and laughed quietly. What a silly, dumb mech. Oh well, no matter, she had a job to do. Slowly and quietly she again climbed up onto the berth, but this time, she didn't jump at a sudden movement made by Prime. Instead, she froze and waited until he was still before proceeding. She walked along the edge of the berth keeping her balance but yet not falling on Optimus. She came up to his face and got down onto her knees, her face next to his.

Now there are some people (and robots mind you) how know when there being watched…and Optimus…is one of those bots. Slowly, one of Optimus' optics began, but suddenly opened wide, when he discovered a face right next to his. He flinched and jumped at the sudden realization of StarChasers presence.

Optimus blinked a few times before he squinted trying to figure out why StarChaser was right there. "StarChaser?"

StarChaser shakes her head laughing. "No, I'm Ultra Magnus."

Optimus slowly looks at his door then back at StarChaser. "What are you doing here?"

StarChaser hits her forehead. "Duh, I'm getting you up ya' lazy bolts."

Optimus groans and lays his back down shutting his optics. StarChaser crawls up onto Optimus' chest and opens one of his optics. "Apparently you didn't understand me…" She sits up on her knees and Optimus is watching her with just one optic. "…GOOD MORNING STARSHINE, THE EARTH SAYS HELLO!"

Optimus just shakes his head, closes his optic and turns his head away. StarChaser crosses he arms and grumbles. "Ratchet was right, you are lazy."

Optimus laughs quietly. StarChaser gets up and tries to shake Optimus' head. "Optimus, Ratchet said it's time to get up!"

Optimus didn't do anything but turn away until his back was to StarChaser. She could hear him grumbling. "Wake me up in ten nano-clicks."

StarChaser stood up pouting. "Oh no, Ratchet said it's time to get up now!"

With that, StarChaser rammed herself into Optimus' back hitting him hard enough to force him off the berth. He immediately hoisted himself up onto the berth and glared at the child who was now sitting on her aft laughing hysterically. That was until she saw the look she got from Optimus…

Ratchet was working on fixing some complications with Teletran 1 when he heard a mix between a giggleish and somewhat oil curdling scream. StarChaser streaked out of Optimus' room faster than lightning with Optimus hot on her tail. Ratchet couldn't help but gasp and laugh at the sight.

Optimus was blaring like a freight train. "Get back here you little…"

StarChaser could help but laugh and cry as she tried to out-run the mech. "RATCHET, HELP ME!"

Ratchet laughed hysterically. "Sorry kid, you're on your own."

She stopped suddenly to look at Ratchet with a pleading look before looking back to see Optimus lunge at her. She screamed and tried to jump out of the way, but failed miserably. Optimus TACKLED her to the ground and they both rolled several times. Optimus finally stopped in a sitting position with StarChaser in his grasp. She looked up and smiled sheepishly before looking at Ratchet, almost begging.

"Ratchet, please…help me!" She then tried to jump out of Optimus' hands but he was too quick.

"Oh, no you don't! You're not getting away that easily!"

Ratchet walks away laughing to himself. StarChaser watched Ratchet leave and yelled after him.

"Ratchet, don't leave me! If you leave, Optimus is going to beat me up!"

Optimus has StarChaser in a head lock and looks down. "I'm not going to beat you up, sheesh, I'm not that mean."

StarChaser is trying to pull Optimus' arm away when she looks up. "Then…what are you going to do?"

Optimus grins evilly. "Oh nothing….just…THIS!" Immediately Optimus started to tickle StarChaser around her mid-plate (stomach) and she laughed and screamed hysterically. Ratchet rushed back in to see what was going on, but laughed at the sight. StarChaser was on her back on the ground laughing and trying to squirm away but Optimus had her pinned in his lap. StarChaser was screaming and laughing with tears running down her face plate. And she pleaded while laughing for Optimus to stop. It was then that Ratchet stepped in.

"Alright, alright you two that's enough. Prime, I think you've gotten even."

Prime stopped in order to allow the child to lower her rpm's. He looked up at Ratchet with a look of satisfaction.

"Yeah, Ratchet, you're right. I think she's had enough."

StarChaser giggles and smiles evilly as Optimus talks to Ratchet. He unknowingly doesn't think to put StarChaser down before she does something that he…doesn't want.

Ratchet was talking to Prime about the problems with Teletran one when StarChaser poked Optimus in the side making him yip and jump. He looked down at the laughing sparkling. Ratchet laughed.

"Apparently you and StarChaser have more in common than looks."

Prime looks down at StarChaser, then back up at Ratchet.

"Okay, so I'm ticklish, what's the big, WOAH! HEY!"

Optimus jumped and landed on his back. StarChaser jumped on him and started to tickle him on the sides. He laughed and rolled over on his stomach. StarChaser climbed over him onto his back and continued to tickle until he had tears. Ratchet laughed so hard, HE even started crying.

Optimus screamed out. "OKAY! OKAY! I GIVE! I GIVE!"

Optimus again rolled over and StarChaser climbed up onto his chest and sat there…triumphant.

Ratchet shakes his head still laughing. "Karma stinks, doesn't it Prime?"

Ratchet shakes his head and laughs as he walks away. Prime looks back at StarChaser who smiles.

Prime chuckles and shakes his head. "What am I going to do with you?"

StarChaser's smile got even bigger because she knew she had beaten Optimus, and Optimus smiled because Optimus knew he had been beat.

"Prime, come here. We've got a problem…"

Prime put StarChaser on the floor and walked over to Ratchet who was standing by Teletran one.

"What is it Ratchet?" Prime looked at the screen.

"Teletran one is picking something up…"

Ratchet pressed a few keys and flipped a switch of two. Just then a horrifying image came up on the screen. Ratchet swallowed hard.

"…Decepticons."

StarChaser stood up and walked over to the two mechs. She stood beside Optimus and hung on to his leg. Optimus looked down at the concerned child. He gently patted the child's head and looked back to Ratchet.

"What are they doing now?"

Ratchet crossed his arms and took a step back while watching the screen.

"I honestly have no idea."


	12. Chapter 12

All three Autobots stood there with horror and disbelief at what they were seeing. Blitzwing and Lugnut were causing a catastrophe in downtown Detroit. People were running and shouting. Optimus could clearly hear the shouts for help along with other things.

'_**Autobots come out and fight us! And suffer you doom!' **_Lugnut held a large truck over his head and threw it causing a large explosion.

Prime turned to Ratchet. "Contact Bumblebee and Prowl tell them to meet us downtown."

Ratchet nodded and walked quickly to the communications center. Prime kneeled down next to StarChaser.

"I need you to stay here for me and hold down the fort, you think you can do that?"

StarChaser looked down and nodded. "Yeah, I can do that."

Optimus stood up. "I'll be back before you know it."

Ratchet came into the room. "Prime, they said they'll be there in less than fifteen Earth minutes. We better get a move on."

"Okay Ratchet, You go I'll catch up."

Ratchet nodded and transformed into is vehicle mode, then drove out of the base in the direction of downtown.

Optimus looked down at StarChaser and sighed.

"I don't want to leave you like this, but…"

"It's okay, I'll be alright." StarChaser tried to give a reassuring smile.

Optimus smiled back before transforming into his vehicle mode. He then drove out of the base in pursuit of Ratchet. StarChaser watched as Optimus disappeared out of sight. She then closed and locked the base door and went into her room to sleep until they came back.

As soon as Optimus and the others came to the scene, Blitzwing and Lugnut were ready for a fight. And a fight is exactly what they got. But as Optimus and the others battled Lugnut and Blitzwing, StarChaser was about to fight the hardest battle of all Autobots…the battle for survival.

Less than a half a mega-cycle later, StarChaser was sound asleep in her room, but she wouldn't be for long. Megatron had found his way to the Autobot's base and was looking for something. At first he looked around for a way in without tripping a security trigger, and he found one. Instead of breaking down the front door, he flew over the top of the base and got in through the hole in the ceiling in Prowl's room. He ventured through the hallways like a cougar stalking its next victim, and his victim was right inside the door he was besides sleeping. Megatron could literally feel the essence of his enemy close … right inside the room.

Slowly Megatron opened the door and gazed inside. Sure enough, a small sparkling lay on the berth inside the room sound asleep. Megatron grinned evilly and laughed.

"You're mine now…Optimus Prime."

Just then StarChaser began to stir. She thought she heard Optimus. She turned and looked but froze in horror at what she saw. She tried to scream but Megatron covered her mouth.

"If you scream, I will kill you. If you're quiet, and you do as I instruct, I _MAY_ spare you, your miserable Autobot life. Do you understand?"

With tears rolling down her face she nodded. Megatron again grinned, and then grasped the child by the throat and chest.

"You're my key to defeating that Prime once and for all…"

With that he took flight into the skies while still holding the terrified and struggling sparkling.

Meanwhile Blitzwing and Lugnut are getting their afts handed to them when they receive a message from Megatron saying retreat, which is exactly what they do, thus leaving the Autobots alone in a daze.

Prowl turns to Ratchet. "That was strange, why would they spend so much time and effort fighting us just to eventually turn and run?"

Bumblebee buds in between Prowl and Ratchet. "Who cares? They're gone and we won!"

Bulkhead smiles and nods in agreement. But Optimus walks away looking in the direction the Decepticons flew in. Then suddenly Optimus had a cold, dark feeling creep in over his spark, slowly he looked in the direction of the base and whispered.

"StarChaser…"

Immediately Optimus transformed and sped away in the direction of the base leaving the others confused and in a cloud of dust. Optimus arrived back at the base and saw no forced entry but the feeling didn't go away, instead….it got worse. Optimus opened the door with force and started calling.

"StarChaser! Are you in here?"

There was no answer, only silence. Optimus tried to remain calm as he called again.

"StarChaser, I don't want to play hide and seek now come out."

Again there was no answer, Optimus ran through the base almost tearing it apart.

"StarChaser! Where are you?"

It was then that Optimus realized there was a message written and was left on Teletran one.

This is what it said:

OPTIMUS PRIME; IF YOU RECEIVE THIS MESSAGE, THEN KNOW THIS: I HAVE YOUR CHILD. IF YOU WISH HER TO BE RETURNED SAFELY THEN YOU WILL BRING TO ME THE ALL-SPARK FRAGMENTS. IF YOU DO NOT BRING ME ALL THE ALL-SPARK FRAGMENTS THAT ARE CURRENTLY IN YOUR POSSESION TO ME BY SUNDOWN TODAY, YOUR CHILD WILL DIE. AND I WILL SEE TO IT MYSELF THAT SHE SUFFERS A SLOW AND EXTREMLY PAINFUL DEATH. IT'S YOUR CHOICE AUTOBOT, THE ALL-SPARK, OR YOUR SPARK…

I WONT WAIT FOREVER.

-MEGATRON

Optimus froze in fear and shock. Megatron? Megatron has StarChaser?

Optimus couldn't help but fall to the floor in dismay thinking 'of all things, why StarChaser?'

It was a half an hour later when the others came back. They all wondered what had got in to their leader, but froze when they saw him on the floor, with a look of confusion, horror, helplessness, and above all guilt. Ratchet slowly approached and leaned down and tried to look Prime in the optic.

"Prime? What's wrong?"

Prime couldn't look at anyone; instead he stared off into empty space, as he handed the note to Ratchet. Ratchet read it and the others read along over Ratchet's shoulder. All froze after seeing who had left the note.

Sari looked up at Prime almost crying.

"Optimus, what are you going to do?"

Optimus just sat there…as if…frozen in time itself. He wanted to speak; but he couldn't find his voice. All he could do was think; think about what horrible things Megatron was doing to HIS StarChaser.

Meanwhile at the Decepticon base, Megatron had just returned with the sparkling, who was still completely terrified but also angry. Megatron put her down. She tried to run but Megatron 'clotheslined' her by grabbing the back of her neck.

"You will behave or be punished, understand?"

She turned around and glared, but it didn't affect Megatron. Megatron turns to Blitzwing.

"Blitzwing, I want you to watch the sparkling. See to it that she stays out of trouble."

Blitzwing grumbles. "Why do I have to watch ze child? Why can't Lugnut do it?"

Megatron turns and glares. "Because I ordered YOU to do it." Megatron walks away.

Blitzwing looks down at StarChaser who has her arms crossed and pouting. "Don't look at me like zat, it waznt my idea…"

She continued to pout, as she turned and tried to walk toward the exit. Blitzwing cuts in front of her with his hands on his hips. "And just where do you sthink you're going?"

She looks up still pouting. "I'm going home. And there's nothing you or anyone else can do about."

Blitzwing bends down getting down to optic level. "Oh, how I beg to differ…"

Blitzwing picked the child up and throwing her over his shoulder. StarChaser starts to kick and scream. "Put me down you big, dumb, ugly mech! I mean it! PUT ME DOWN!"

Blitzwing sighed as he struggled to maintain his grip on the sparkling. He then whispered to himself. "This is going to be a long day."

Prime didn't know what to do with himself. Ratchet and the others tried to comfort him but it was no use. Ratchet signaled the others to follow him into the other room. Looking back to see Prime with his head on his knees, Sari shook her head and fallowed the others into the other room.

When Sari came into the room everyone was congregating around Ratchet.

"So…now what do we do?" Bumblebee looks at Ratchet then at Sari.

Ratchet shakes his head. "Honestly, I don't know what to do. The whole leader thing is more Prime's area, but considering he's a little out of it right now…"

"So then what DO we do?" Sari puts her hands on her hips.

As they all continue to talk, Prime comes around the corner and listens in on the conversation being held.

Bumblebee turns to Ratchet. "What can we do Ratchet?"

Ratchet again shakes his head. "I don't know; but we cannot allow the Decepticons to get a hold of the fragments."

Sari takes a step back in shock and confusion. "So what you're saying is we either save StarChaser or give up the fragments, and you're NOT giving up the fragments…so that means…"

Prime steps back not understanding, or in more correct terms; not wanting to understand, were they just going to let StarChaser die at the hands of Megatron? Prime stood there confused for a moment before shaking that thought out of his processor. No…he was not going to let that happen. Prime turned around heading for his room. He knew what he had to do. As he walked into his room, he quietly whispered to himself. "I lost her once…I'm not losing her again."

Ratchet continued to talk to the others and the others fought back by throwing ideas up in the air, but all arguments ceased when the sound of a garage door opening and tires screeching against pavement pulled them all back to reality. Immediately Ratchet ran and looked in Prime's room to report what they all just heard but froze at the sight. He looked down at the floor.

"Oh, Prime no."

As the others caught up to Ratchet they also saw what he was looking at and couldn't help but think the worst.

Both Prime and the All-Spark fragments….were gone.


	13. Chapter 13

Outside the city of Detroit, Megatron stood looking over everything like an eagle. Lugnut stood behind him looking at something a little more…amusing. It had been twelve hours since StarChaser's capture and during all twelve of those hours, StarChaser had been kicking screaming and even crying to be let go. Blitzwing struggled with StarChaser but managed to keep his grip but with every passing second became more and more annoyed.

Blitzwing looked down at StarChaser. "You can keep kicking and screaming all you van't but I'm not letting go."

StarChaser glares up at Blitzwing, and then tries to scream even louder. Blitzwing tries to quite her screams with his hand. For a split nano-sec there was a moment of silence until StarChaser bit Blitzwing.

Blitzwing threw his servo up in the air and cursed loudly. StarChaser then thrust her stabilizing servo down on his as hard as she could. Blitzwing immediately let go of StarChaser and bounced around holding his aching stabilizing servo and cursed even louder. It was then that StarChaser saw an opportunity and took it. She ran as fast as she could in the direction of the base.

Megatron turned yelling. "STOP HER!" And fired his cannon in the direction she was running.

The shot fired by Megatron just barely missed her, but did miss her. Instead of stopping and freezing like last time, she just kept running. After running for a good ten minutes, she looked over her shoulder to see if she was being fallowed which amazingly enough…she wasn't. No one was behind her. She was free. She started jumping and throwing her servos up victoriously, shouting for joy. She was finally free and could go home,… wait…home! Optimus must be worried sick about her! But which way was home? All well, she'd find it. But it's when she turned around in the direction she thought the base was, was when she ran face first into a large gray, metal figure.

Slowly StarChaser's vision climbed until her optics met a pair of large red mech optics met hers, and boy, they were angry. She froze in fear as Megatron towered over her, and it only made the fear worse considering he was holding his sword to her throat. He looked down upon her and chuckled deeply from the chest before speaking.

"You've got spark kid, I'll give you that. But it's that attitude like your sire's that will be the death of both of you."

Megatron got down to optic level until his optics matched hers and hissed. "If you pull a stunt like that again, there won't even be enough left for spare parts. Do I make myself clear?"

StarChaser nods. Megatron grins devilishly. "Good…"

Then as harshly as imaginable, Megatron grabbed StarChaser by the back of the neck and proceeded back to the hillside. When he returned, Blitzwing had finally recollected himself.

Blitzwing's face changes from 'sane' to 'hot-headed' and points at StarChaser. "When all this iz ovar, I'm going to kill zat kid!" his face then changed to its 'nutcase' state. "But only aftar she seez me dance!"

StarChaser looks up at Megatron, terrified. "But I thought that if Optimus brought the All-Spark fragments, then I'd live?"

Megatron looks down at her again grinning. "That's IF he brings the fragments."

All the Decepticons start to laugh at the fact that they highly doubt anyone's coming. StarChaser stares at the ground and allows a single tear to escape. As it rolls down her face plate and hits the ground, she quietly whispers.

"Somebody…anybody…please…..please help me…"

Just then Lugnut stopped and focused into the distance, then turned to Megatron.

"An Earth vehicle is approaching our current position my lord. By the looks of it, it is a red and blue semi- truck."

Immediately StarChaser looks up, can she believe what she just heard? Has Optimus come for her? Sure enough a semi-truck pulls up and stops fifty yards away from where Megatron was standing…and transformed.

StarChaser fell to her knees and screamed out with tears running down her faceplate. **"OPTIMUS!"**

It was Optimus, and he was holding the strange box that StarChaser had seen in Optimus' room earlier. Was that the All-Spark? But StarChaser's attention diverts to Megatron when he started to laugh.

"I knew you would come Autobot."

Megatron then clenched StarChaser harder making her groan and cringe in pain.

Optimus looks at StarChaser, then at Megatron. "Let her go Megatron…"

Megatron smiles then violently throws StarChaser as hard as he could. As she hit the ground, a large crack sound rang through the air. Few moments passed were StarChaser was still until finally she tried to get up, but fell back to the ground moaning. Optimus watched StarChaser in horror. Then looked at Megatron with anger raging through his fuel lines. He slowly moved downward and placed the All-Spark on the ground, then backed away. Optimus kept 'eye contact' with Megatron the whole time as her kept his distance and circled around to get to StarChaser. Megatron kept his optics on the All-Spark, and never even thought to attack Optimus. As he approached he whispered to himself.

"Finally…after all these stellar cycles, I finally have what's rightfully mine."

Optimus ran to StarChaser and carefully her in his arms. But froze when he saw that her optics were closed. Megatron bent down next to the All-Spark and was about to take it just when Starscream decided to crash the party.

"Now wait a nano-click Megatron, the All-Spark is rightfully mine!

Megatron looked at Starscream annoyed by his uncanny knack for showing up at the wrong time. Starscream returned the look to Megatron.

"Besides, if it wasn't for me, you would have never even had known about the sparkling in the first place!"

Optimus watched as the feud between Starscream and Megatron proceeded to escalate. But his attention was more drawn toward the sparkling that now lay in his arms. Optimus stared at her and was terrified that she wouldn't wake up. He leaned closer to her audio receptor and whispered her name.

Slowly, StarChaser opened her optics and looked up at Optimus and smiled but soon cringed and cried out in pain. Optimus looked down and was horrified at the sight. StarChaser's right stabilizing servo was very badly damaged. It was leaking fuel and sparkling violently.

Optimus looked up to see the progress between Megatron and Starscream. Things were not going well, from the way things looked; Megatron was about ready to kill Starscream… again. But Optimus saw this as a perfect opportunity to get StarChaser away from here. Carefully Optimus rose to his stabilizing servos with StarChaser in his arms. He situated her as so that she was comfortable and quietly retreated into the evening sun leaving Megatron and Starscream to settle their differences between themselves.

It hadn't even been a minute since Optimus retreated that Starscream finally lunged for the All-Spark, but Megatron being quick to the draw did the same. Both demanded that each other let go but neither one would. Megatron pulled as hard as he could.

"The All-Spark is the rightful property of the true leader of the Decepticons Starscream!"

Starscream also pulled as hard as he could. He refused to let go.

"Yes and the rightful leader of the Decepticons is me Megatron!"

Just then as if by an act of fate, the All-Spark container opened, but there were no fragments inside. The box was empty.

Starscream looked up at Megatron in shock and anger.

"That Autobot tricked us!"

Megatron too looks up in shock and anger. "This is your entire fault Starscream!"

Starscream let go of the box and stepped backwards at the insult. "MY FAULT? HOW IS THIS MY-!" Suddenly Megatron put up a hand abruptly stopping Starscream in midsentence. Then turned and looked at Lugnut and Blitzwing. "Wait. Where is the Autobot and the sparkling?"

There is a long silence form Lugnut and Blitzwing. Megatron then approaches the two…furiously.

"Which way did they go?"

Blitzwing looks at Lugnut who in turn looks at Blitzwing. Then both look at Megatron who was furiously waiting. Blitzwing shrugs as he looks at Megatron.

"Ve do not know Megatron, ve vere so buisy vatching you and Starscream battle, that ve didn't even seem zem leave…"

Megatron then shouts as he points his cannon toward the two. "FIND THEM!"

Within seconds, both Blitzwing and Lugnut transformed into their alternate modes and took to the skies in search of the two runaways. Megatron turned to Starscream and pointed his cannon to his throat.

"This isn't over Starscream…" Megatron then transformed and disappeared into the sky.

Optimus was unable to transform because he was carrying StarChaser therefore he had to walk. He walked quickly, but carefully enough so he didn't open the wound even wider than it already was. StarChaser lay motionless in his arms. She lay there crying and hurting. She looked up at Optimus with tears swelling in her optics. Optimus tried to give her a reassuring smile but somehow could feel her pain. She watched him but then looked down at her stabilizing servo. She then drove her face into his chest plate.

"It hurts…"

Optimus gently pulls her closer and tries to shelter her with his shoulders.

"I know it does, but you'll feel as good as new once we get you back to the base."

All at once, several shots were fired and numerous explosions detonated around Optimus and StarChaser. Optimus looked up and saw Megatron in his vehicle mode; and he was firing his cannon. As the energy from the weapon blared toward Optimus, he jumped out of the line of fire and landed on his side still holding StarChaser. She cried out in pain and agony at the sudden shock to her systems. Optimus turned his head to look at StarChaser only to see a stream of tears retreating from her optics. She again dug her face into his chest and cried out in absolute terror and was almost pleading.

"I WANNA GO HOME!"

Optimus rose up as quickly as possible and ran for the closest cover he could find. Once under the cover of a fallen cement slab Optimus looked at StarChaser, then at Megatron. To him, there was another task at hand that he knew he had to do. Optimus then opened his comm. link and StarChaser listened intently.

"Optimus Prime to Ratchet: I've got StarChaser but the Decepticons are attacking and causing severe damage on downtown Detroit. I need back up as soon as possible."

StarChaser listened as a few seconds passed and then Ratchet's voice could be heard.

"Ratchet to Prime: we'll be there as soon as we can."

Optimus then looked down upon StarChaser as he put her down as gently as possible. As soon as she was on the ground, Optimus bent down beside her.

"I have to go now…"

At first StarChaser hesitated. Optimus was getting up when StarChaser suddenly reached out and grabbed his servo.

"NO! YOU CAN'T!"

Optimus looked down at the pleading sparkling. "I can't let them hurt you StarChaser…"

Optimus then stood up completely and looked down on the injured child before slowly turning to walk out. Again StarChaser hesitated but then reached for him screaming.

"NO OPTIMUS! PLEASE COME BACK!"

Optimus stopped and turned to StarChaser who was reaching for him crying.

"I can't lose you too!"

Optimus returns to her and puts his hands on her shoulders. He then embraces her in a hug and whispers into her audio receptor.

"StarChaser…you won't…"

Optimus then turns and runs out from under his previous cover and shouts up.

"I'm the one you want Megatron…leave my daughter out of it!"

And thus the battle began. All at once another great battle broke out between the forces of good and evil. Optimus charged at Megatron and knocked him down…hard. He then swung his axe with all the force he could muster. But Megatron: like Optimus; was determined to prevail. StarChaser watched from her position in awe. She was so amazed and fascinated at the fact the Optimus bravely ran to challenge Megatron. Megatron kicked Optimus back into a wall, and then started to approach StarChaser. Optimus tackled Megatron to the ground. Optimus then stood up and yelled at Megatron who was lying on the ground a few yards away.

"DO YOUR WORST MEGATRON!"

Megatron slowly stood up and began to chuckle deeply from the chest plate.

"You haven't seen my worst Autobot…"

Megatron then charged full blare Optimus taking him off guard. For StarChaser watching Optimus get hit, kicked, punched, blasted, smashed, and slashed by a raging sword was like a kick to the gut. Optimus then got hit…hard. StarChaser watched in horror as Optimus fell to the ground…and…didn't get back up. StarChaser gasped and covered her mouth; she could feel the tears beginning to swell. As Megatron slowly began to approach Optimus, StarChaser whispered under her breath.

"Come on. Get up…please Optimus…please get up."

Megatron slowly bent down beside the weak Autobot and chuckled deeply from the chest.

"Did you really think you could protect her?"

Optimus then weakly raised his head to look into the optics of his enemy. Megatron only smiled at the Autobot's failed attempt to get up.

"You were only delaying the inevitable Autobot; I was going to kill her one way or another. And now, because of _your_ foolish trickery…" Megatron bent down closer and whispered into Optimus' audio receptor. "…I'm going to kill her slowly and painfully, right in front of your optics, but before she dies, she will hear the dying screams of her father who will be begging for mercy, who will be begging for death…"

Optimus then looked Megatron straight in the optics and mustered all the strength he had.

"I WILL NEVER LET YOU HARM HER MEGATRON!"

Optimus punched Megatron in the face as hard as he possibly could. The Decepticon leader stepped back holding his faceplate in agony. Optimus then lunged at Megatron with such rage that Megatron himself was amazed. When the other Autobots finally arrived, they couldn't believe their optics. Optimus had Megatron in a head lock, and was literally tiring to rip Megatron's head from his shoulders. Megatron though managed to grab Optimus' head and throw him. Megatron fell to his knees holding his neck regaining his bearings. Optimus turned and saw that the others had arrived. Optimus then turned back to Megatron and tackled him with such force, that he was propelled into a large pile of debris; Optimus then turned to Ratchet.

"Ratchet, get StarChaser out of here NOW!"

Ratchet looked at Optimus then at Megatron who was ferociously fighting to get out of the debris.

"But Prime?"

As Optimus pulled his axe toward his chest in a defensive position, he looked at Ratchet more pleading then ordering.

"RATCHET! DON'T ARGUE, JUST GO!"

Ratchet turned around and started to look for the sparkling only to see her under a cement slab crying and holding her stabilizing servo. He immediately ran to her and bent down beside her to evaluate the damages. She needed to get back to the base…now. As Ratchet picked her up, she struggled a little but soon stopped considering she was just too weak to fight or even care. Optimus had again forced Megatron back into the rubble. But instead of going in for another blow, he stood and ordered a retreat. Lugnut and Blitzwing stopped fighting and transformed into their alternate modes and disappeared into the evening sky. Megatron then took one last menacing look at Optimus.

"This isn't over Autobot, I will come back!"

Megatron then transformed and disappeared into the sky. All the Autobots stood and watched as the Decepticon disappeared behind a bank of clouds. And as soon as they were gone out of sight, Optimus let out a sigh of relief; but then….collapsed.


	14. Chapter 14

It took a great deal of effort on behalf of Ratchet, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Prowl in order to get the two wounded bots back to the base. After the got back, Ratchet wanted to begin repairs on Optimus immediately. But Optimus refused.

"Ratchet, you need to repair StarChaser."

Ratchet shook his head. "Prime, your injuries could be life threatening if not attended to as soon as possible."

Optimus looked up at Ratchet from the arms of Bulkhead and Prowl.

"I don't care. StarChaser is to be repaired first…that's an order."

Ratchet was confused and flustered by Optimus' stubbornness, but soon shook his and asked Bumblebee to carefully bring StarChaser to the med lab. Optimus pulled himself away from Bulkhead and Prowl's assistance and walked to the med bay. When he walked in, StarChaser lay motionless the berth. He gently seated himself and took StarChaser's hand in his, then looked at Ratchet.

"Ratchet, is she going to be alright?"

As Ratchet readied his equipment he looked at Optimus unsure.

"I don't know, but I'll do everything I can."

Optimus sat beside StarChaser the whole time that Ratchet worked, and continued to stay long after Ratchet had finished and left the room. By time Ratchet returned to check on StarChaser, in was 2a.m. and Optimus was still there, still holding her hand and was wide awake watching over her like a hawk. Without even turning to Ratchet, he spoke.

"How could I have let this happen Ratchet? How could I have been so stupid?"

Ratchet slowly approached and stood next to Optimus.

"Oh Prime, it wasn't your fault… you know that Megatron would try every trick in the book to get those fragments,… even kidnap innocent children."

Ratchet then sat down and looked at Optimus' shoulder that was sliced open and sparking violently, and leaking badly onto the floor.

"But Prime I do know that she'll be fine…you on the other hand-."

"Okay Ratchet, you can fix me…" Optimus laughed and turned back to StarChaser.

As Ratchet worked on Optimus' damaged systems, Optimus continued to watch StarChaser extremely close. His hope was that StarChaser would soon open her optics and would say she was alright, or at least move, or SOMETHING. Just ANYTHING to let him know she was alright. Just then Optimus jumped for StarChaser started to stir. But when Optimus jumped, so did Ratchet.

"Sheesh kid, what you tryin' to do? Give me a spark attack?"

Optimus didn't answer; instead he sat quietly watching StarChaser. Ratchet looked over Optimus' shoulder at StarChaser who was finally coming around. Slowly StarChaser's optics began to flutter open and wander around the room, but soon enough stopped and rested on Optimus. She smiled and quietly whispered.

"O-Optimus?"

Ratchet laughed and crossed his arms. "Hey look who decided to join the living."

Optimus passed a glance to Ratchet then looked back at StarChaser smiling. At first he was slow to respond but eventually did.

"Y-Yeah, it's me…how you feeling kiddo?"

She smiles as she looks up at him yawning. "I'm okay. How are you?"

Optimus laughs then smiles as her rested his arms on the berth next to StarChaser.

"I'm feeling much better…now that I know you're okay."

StarChaser's smile only got bigger, but it soon disappeared when she laid her head back and groaned.

"What happened Optimus?"

Optimus sighed and explained that after she passed out, he had defeated Megatron and collapsed himself. Ratchet had finished working on Optimus' systems. He then patted his shoulder and left the room closing the door behind him. Optimus watched Ratchet leave, and then turned back to StarChaser smiling. StarChaser smiled then yawned again.

"So, if Megatron didn't get the fragments, then…where are they?"

Optimus smiled mischievously and then grinned to himself.

"Don't worry, they're somewhere safe."

StarChaser smiled at Optimus curiously, but soon shook her head in amusement at her sire's actions. She then looked down at the floor, then back up at Optimus innocently.

"Optimus, what were you going to say to me before you left to fight the Deceptions?"

At first, Optimus seemed…shy…and a little sheepish and soon found himself staring at the floor but then soon smiles to himself and looks up and sarcastically asks.

"What do you mean?"

StarChaser groans and looks at Optimus amused but annoyed.

"_**Optimus,**_ you know what I'm talking about…"

Optimus laughs. "Oh, THAT question."

Optimus then laughs hysterically as he gets up and sits down on the berth next to StarChaser. He then swept her up into his arms being careful not to harm her. He turned her in his arms so that her face was facing his.

"StarChaser…"

StarChaser looks up into a pair of gentle mech optics looking at her.

"…what I WAS going to say was that I may not have planned on being a sire so soon in my life, but…now that you're here…I think I've got to be the luckiest mech in the universe."

StarChaser looked dumbfounded and yet flattered at Optimus.

"D-Do you really mean that?"

Optimus responded by only pulling StarChaser closer and putting his forehead against hers.

"StarChaser let me tell you something…no matter what, you are my daughter, and I will always be there for you and…"

Optimus stopped suddenly and looked away, but looked back smiling.

"…and nothing in the universe could ever change that…"

StarChaser smiled and gently rubbed her face against his. There was a long silence between the two as both didn't really know what to say. Optimus then suddenly 'cleared-his-throat' and pulled StarChaser away from his face.

"Well, I guess it's getting late. So…you better go back into stasis."

StarChaser only nodded as she closed her optics and laid her head against his chest. Optimus only smiled as he gently laid the child back down on the berth. Standing up and admiring the child made Optimus wonder: 'am I doing the right thing?'

Optimus shook the thought out of his mind as he turned and walked out of the room carefully pulling the door shut behind him. It had been a long day for him, and it was about time he powered down as well.

Back on Cybertron, things were just a little different. The planet unlike Detroit was full of life, and machines were busy with their lives. But one… was on an extremely important mission; possibly one that could result in life or death.

A femme was wandering around the loading bay for the Elite Guard…looking for something, or more correctly…someone. But soon stopped and sighed in relief.

"Jazz? Is that you?"

The ninja straightened up and turned around to encounter a beautiful young blue femme standing behind him with her arms crossed.

"No way, Chromia? Is that you? I can't believe this!"

Jazz turned around to embrace the femme in a hug.

"Girl I haven't seen you in like…forever. Where have you been?"

Chromia shrugs and smiles. "What can I say Jazz, I've been keeping myself busy."

Jazz laughs. Chromia puts up a hand. "But that's not why I'm here…Jazz, I need to ask you a few questions."

Jazz shrugs. "Ask away…"

Chromia lead Jazz away to talk privately. "Jazz, I need to know, do you know of a mech that is currently in the Elite Guard by the name of Optimus?"

Jazz's face lights up. "What? OP? Are you kidding? Yeah, I know him; he's currently stationed on the planet Earth! Why do ya' wanna know?"

Chromia looks away. "That's not important…what IS important is that I need to get there as soon as possible…"

She then looked up at Jazz with pleading optics. "Jazz, can you help me?"

At first Jazz was a little overtaken by the question, but soon allowed his optics to soften.

"I'll see what I can do…"

Optimus awoke abruptly the next morning with a spark sinking feeling deep within his chest. It was the same sinking feeling he had just previously felt when StarChaser had been kidnapped by Megatron. Optimus sat up abruptly, jumped off his berth and sprinted to the medic bay as fast as he could. And with every step he took, he prayed to Primus that StarChaser would be there. Sure enough, as he came through the door of the med bay, there laid StarChaser sound asleep on the berth…safe and sound. Prime couldn't help but sigh in relief as he leaned up against the frame of the door and watched the child sleep.

Optimus wasn't the only one on the run that morning. Turns out Bumblebee too was doing quite a bit of running. Bumblebee sprinted past the medic bay in search of Prime but stopped in realization that he had just past him. Bee turned around and slowly approached the large mech who seemed to be staring off into empty space. He gently poked Optimus in the back (because he can't reach his shoulder). Optimus turned around to see Bee behind him.

"Yes Bumblebee, what is it?"

Bee rubbed the back of his head and smirked. "Uh, boss bot…we have a little bit of a situation."

"What?" Optimus cocked his head.

Bumblebee shook his head and pointed towards the door leading outside. "Maybe you should just come see for yourself."

Soon enough Prime came out of the base doors with Bumblebee close behind.

Sure enough, it was what Prime had suspected; the Autobot flag ship had just touched down just outside the base in an empty parking lot…talk about irony. The ship's main door slowly opened and rested on the pavement beneath it thus emerging a not so happy Sentinel with Jazz, Jetfire, and Jetstorm behind him.

"Okay Optimus, what did ya' do now?"

Optimus just shook the question off. "Well hello Sentinel, nice to see you again too."

Sentinel only pointed into Optimus' chest plate scowling. "Don't get that kind of attitude with me! As your superior officer, I deserve a little more respect from you!"

Optimus crosses his arms and leans against the nearest wall. "Last time I checked Sentinel, you and I STILL had equal rank, so if you think you can order ME around, you're surely mistaken."

Optimus then grinned devilishly yet triumphantly as he relaxed against the wall. Bumblebee, Jazz, Jetfire and Jetstorm just quietly laughed among themselves until Sentinel had turned around and gave them all a deathly glare. Optimus then loses his smile and _tries_ to be serious but fails miserably.

"So, why are you guys here anyway? You weren't due for another check in for another few Earth months."

Sentinel who was too steamed tried to speak but was soon quieted when Jazz stepped in on Sentinel's behalf.

"Well it's like this OP—."

"I think I can introduce myself Jazz."

Everyone including Optimus turned around to see a young femme standing at the top of the ship's ramp. She was just a little bit taller than Bumblebee, yet shorter then Prowl. She stood tall and proud with her blue and silver armor glistening in the light of the rising sun. She stood there perched for the longest time on top of the ramp; surveying the immediate area when her optics slowly rested upon Optimus.

Jazz again stepped forward motioning toward the speechless femme as she descended down the loading ramp. "This is Chromia, and she's here looking for-."

Jazz couldn't even finish his sentence before having Chromia's servo placed on his mouth to hush him. Chromia then slowly approached Optimus; but stopped a little less them arms-length away. Optimus didn't know what to make of this behavior. Why was she looking at him like that? Why did she look angry? Why was she-? But just then with rage screaming from her face, she slapped Optimus as hard as she could across the face plate. There was a moment of gasps, awes and even laughter (from Sentinel of course) as Optimus stepped back in confusion and pain. He held his face where Chromia's hand made contact and almost screamed.

"WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR?"

One thing to know about femmes: rule number one; never mess with em' when they're pissed. All at once, Chromia's calm, gentle and peaceful disposition seemed to fade away as anger, frustration, and sheer terror took over. She got right into Optimus' face and yelled; no SCREAMED at him.

"**WHERE IS THE SPARKLING?"**

Optimus froze for a moment before looking at her confused as well as angry. "What? What are you talking about?"

Chromia pushed in even closer to Optimus face still screaming. "The sparkling that belongs to StarRacer! Where is she! ? She—."

Optimus then pushed Chromia back away from his face and jabbed a finger at her. "Now wait just one slaggin' nano-click! Just WHO do you think you are?"

Chromia's anger at first seems like it's going to get the best of her… again. But instead she took a moment to look away from Optimus and gather her emotions. She turned around and looked Optimus dead in the optic.

"Like Jazz said; my name is Chromia. I am a member of the intelligence monitoring service back on Cybertron…and I was a close friend to StarRacer. We _were_ studying together for the same job, but…"

Chromia trails off but then looks at Optimus again. "…after she found out she was pregnant she was forced to quit school. And if it wasn't for her, YOU probably would've never made it into the Academy in the first place."

Optimus looked down confused so Chromia explained. "If it wasn't for her saying 'she didn't know who the father was' you would have been tracked down and thrown out of the Autobot Academy and you would have never had a chance at the Elite Guard."

Optimus looked at Chromia shocked and confused. "What?"

Chromia sighed. "She was protecting you. She wanted at least one of you to make your dreams come true, slag, even for the longest time she wouldn't even tell me who the father was! But…"

Chromia gently placed a servo on Optimus' shoulder. "…she thought she could raise the child on her own, but after her accident…"

Chromia turned away from Optimus and looked like she was going to cry but soon re-gathered herself. "After her accident at Iacon, I swore that I would protect the child and raise it as my own; that I would be its guardian, and it was before StarRacer died that she told me the name of her child's father…it was then that she told me your name, Optimus."

Chromia looked away from Optimus shaking her head. "It wasn't until 2,000 vorns after her mother's death that she was finally old enough to understand what had happened, and it's only now I realize telling her about you was a mistake."

Optimus looked up confused and furious. "Wait a nano-click! How was telling her about me a mistake?"

Chromia looked back him. "Because if I hadn't told her about you she wouldn't have run off!"

Optimus stepped back still trying to process what he had just heard. Chromia sighed and looked away. "I told her about who her mother was as well as what her mother told me about you, how strong, smart and gentle you were and how you made her feel that night so long ago, and how she would never forget your laugh or your smile or the way you looked into her optics before…well…you know."

Optimus looked down at the dirt by his stabilizing servos. He shuffled the dirt before looking up again half smiling. "She really said all those things about me?"

Chromia half smiled to as she nodded but shook away those thoughts as so to get back to the original subject. "But, after the sparkling ran off; I've been trying to find her ever since."

She looks at Optimus and begins to speak in a serious tone. "That's why I'm here…Optimus Prime…because I knew the child would try to find you, so by me finding you first, it would give a better chance of finding her."

Optimus thinks about this logic for a moment before looking at Chromia again curiously. "That still doesn't explain why you had to slap me."

"BECAUSE IF IT WASN"T FOR YOU NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!" Chromia exploded as she threw her servos in the air and turned away from Optimus.

Optimus took just a _slight_ offence to this. "Now wait! How is it that-!"

Chromia turned abruptly towards Optimus thus interrupting him. "Please, just tell me…is the sparkling here or not?"

"Hey! Can you guys keep it down; some of us are still sleeping!"

Just then everyone and I mean _everyone _turned to see StarChaser standing in the door way rubbing her tired optics and holding a giant teddy bear that Sari had given her. StarChaser looked around to see what in the name of Primus was going on, but froze when she saw Chromia. Chromia seemed as if she was going to break down and start crying as soon as she saw the little sparkling. She brushed past Optimus and ran to the sparkling thus picking her up and embracing her in a hug.

"Thank Primus you're alright."

StarChaser on the other hand only managed to blurt out five words. "What are you doing here?"

Chromia pulled the sparkling away from her chest to look at her but laughed and then embraced her again. "I've come to take you home silly!"

Chromia then locked the child in a slightly tighter grip, which caused StarChaser to yip in pain. Chromia released the sparkling and looked at her concerned. Chromia watched as StarChaser rubbed her leg. It had several bandages on it and random dents here and there. She then furiously turned to Optimus; demanding. "What happened?"

Slowly Optimus approached the two and as gently as possibly took StarChaser out of Chromia's arms. "**THAT** is none of _your_ concern."

Optimus then slowly walked over to Ratchet and handed StarChaser to him and whispers. "Take her to the med bay and see if you can do any further repairs." Ratchet only nods as he adjusts StarChaser so her head is resting on his shoulders, and then proceeds to the med bay. Chromia grabs Optimus by the shoulder again shouting. "What happened! I demand to know!"

Optimus instead only brushed Chromia's hand off his shoulder and proceeded to walk into the base behind Ratchet. Chromia proceeded to nip at Optimus' heels yelling out questions and demands and even periodically curses at Optimus for purposely ignoring her. Optimus on the other hand grudgingly tries to pretend Chromia is not there.

As Optimus turned to enter the Med Bay with Chromia hot on his tail, she stopped in sudden shock and awe at what she saw and was forced to take a step back.

(You see, it turns out that when StarChaser ran from Megatron and he shot at her, a blast from his cannon just winged her on the stabilizing servo but she didn't even realize it because of all the excitement but the shot didn't do any severe damage, but when thrown it made the wound more severe.)

Chromia swallowed hard before asking if that mark was from an energon cannon. Ratchet looked at Prime and wanted to know if he should tell her. Prime nodded.

"She's going to find out anyway Ratchet, so you might as well tell her now."

Ratchet then turned to Chromia sighing. "Yeah, it is."

"Would you mind if I took a closer look myself?" Chromia kneeled down beside the sparkling and looked up at the medic curiously. Ratchet motioned a 'go ahead' gesture with the wave of a hand. So Chromia proceeded.

Chromia slowly approached StarChaser and bent down to get a closer look at the wound. As gently as she could, she touched it and analyzed the residue left behind. Shaking her head; she turned to face the mechs standing behind her.

"This is the same kind of residue left behind from a Mark 3661 Energon blaster, but there's only one supposedly in existence and that one belongs to…"

Chromia stopped herself before she realized what she was actually saying, and then stood up and glared at Optimus with the coldest stare she could muster.

"**MEGATRON**? YOU LET **MEGATRON** DO THIS!"

Immediately StarChaser tried to intervene. "It wasn't his fault! Megatron kidnapped me…!"

Everyone turned to look at StarChaser who in turn froze for a moment but then pointed to Optimus.

"…but he rescued me and saved my life...twice!"

Chromia turns to StarChaser putting up a servo to hush her. "Sweet spark, please…stay out of this. This is between your sire and I."

Optimus then yelled almost in an explosion of anger. "Her name is StarChaser! And if she wishes to speak, let her!"

Then all at once, the real fight began. Chromia huffed and stood back with her hands on her hips.

"Oh, so _now_ you decide that you're going to start acting like a real father?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Optimus scowls.

"Oh, I think you know…"

The fight went on and on and on for several minutes with both Optimus and Chromia taking stabs at one another. StarChaser didn't like it at all and wanted it to stop…now. She tried to say something, but no words would come out. So…she started to cry.

Optimus and Chromia stop their bickering immediately and look at StarChaser. Chromia walked over to her taking the child into her arms and tried to calm her down.

"What's wrong? Come on sweet-spark, tell me." StarChaser won't talk; all she can do… is cry.

Optimus then walked over to Chromia and took StarChaser out of Chromia's arms. He then tried to comfort her and hush her.

He gently put his face against her cheek plate. "Shh, little one… It's alright."

Slowly but gradually the tears and whimpers began to lessen. Optimus then gave a warm gentle smile that made StarChaser smile back. Optimus then handed her to Bumblebee.

"Bumblebee, will you please take StarChaser to her room for me?"

Bumblebee nodded as he took StarChaser from Optimus. "Yeah boss bot, I can do that."

Bumblebee then proceeded to walk out of the room with StarChaser resting against his chest plate.

As soon as StarChaser and Bumblebee were gone, Chromia delivered yet another cold stare and offending comment; and the fight proceeded yet again as if nothing had ever happened.

Eventually Optimus and Chromia had taken the fight outside the base as to leave poor little StarChaser out of it. But, sure enough… StarChaser was watching everything through the window from inside the base. She couldn't hear just what exactly they were saying, but she had a _pretty_ good idea on what was being said just from watching the changing expressions on their faces. But Ratchet and the others stood back and watched StarChaser from a distance. They all talked amongst themselves, mostly about what they thought was going to happen to the kid.

Sentinel apparently didn't care what happened to the kid, the thing he was having a problem with was the fact he just couldn't believe that Optimus got a chance to interface before he did, and didn't think it fair that a 'grease grunt' like Optimus could achieve such a thing. And what's worse he got a sparkling out of the deal. It's not that Sentinel wanted one; it's just that Optimus now had proof of his "previous interactions" with a femme, and just by that child being here; well, it was like it getting rubbed in his face plate.

Jazz on the other hand was quite impressed with Optimus; his thinking was 'hey if the guy got some, good for him.' He then turned and asked Prowl.

"Hey, how long has that kid been here for anyway?"

Prowl smiled slightly. "She's been here since you guys were last here."

Jazz stepped back kind of bewildered. "Really?"

Prowl laughed. "Yeah, my theory is that somehow she got aboard your guy's ship undetected and used it to get to Earth. Pretty clever on her part."

Jazz too laughed and stepped back in astonishment. "Yeah, she's really smart for her age."

StarChaser heard the conversation about her going on between Prowl and Jazz, so she turned around and smiled at the mechs. But then the smile faded as she solemnly looked at the floor then back out the window to see Chromia who looked as if she was ready to sock Optimus square in the face; only this time, with her fists.


	15. Chapter 15

Things were really starting to heat up between Optimus and Chromia. There was screaming, yelling, and even the occasional cursing from time to time. Optimus had tried several times to walk away, but there was something about this femme that just really….well, anyway…

Chromia and Optimus' fight had gone far enough (at least Optimus thought so) so Optimus again tried to walk away but Chromia (being an instigator) picked at a sore that she really shouldn't of.

"You don't know anything about StarChaser _**or**_ StarRacer, so how dare you think that you can push your way into that child's life after all this time!"

Optimus whipped around in fury and argues back. "I didn't push my way in, she found me, I had no choice! And you know what else, if someone would have told me, I would have been there in the first place!"

"Well you want to know something _Optimus, _StarRacer tried to find you, okay. She tried to find you for the entire first semester of her pregnancy and kept searching well into her second until it was just too hard on her systems!" Optimus froze. But Chromia kept going.

"But you know what really ticks me off is the fact that maybe if YOU would have tied looking for HER then maybe things could have turned out differently!"

Optimus looked up at Chromia enraged by this comment. "Believe me, I searched, I searched every chance I got, but training at the Autobot Academy sort of limited my time, and since I didn't know where to start, I just…"

"You just '_what_' Optimus?"

Optimus looked up…more hurt than anything else. "I-**I gave up**…okay…. I gave up. But that was then, and this is now. And now that StarChaser was in my life, I AM going to take care of her."

Chromia shakes her head. "Optimus, honestly I think that you are incapable of taking care of her."

Optimus, a little offended by this. "I've been doing it for four Earth months!"

Chromia looks at him frowning. "And think about where StarChaser is now Optimus."

Optimus pauses for a minute in silence. For a long time he doesn't speak, hell; he doesn't even move. But eventually he looks back at the base and is astonished to see StarChaser watching him from the window. Just then StarChaser placed her servo on the window with a 'what's going on' expression. Optimus stood still facing the base, just watching solemnly.

Chromia slowly walked up and stood next to Prime and for once since she got there, started to talk to him calmly.

Chromia looked to the window to watch the curious sparkling too. "She's beautiful isn't she?"

There was a long awkward silence between the two until Optimus nodded and smiled. "She's just as beautiful as her mother."

Optimus then turned to Chromia looking her straight in the optic. "She's the most beautiful and most precious thing I've ever seen."

For a long time Chromia was quiet until she mustered up enough courage to ask him. Optimus tell me honestly, do you love her."

Optimus turned to Chromia then looked down. "I love her as much as I loved her mother."

Chromia looks down and is quiet for a moment then looks up. "Optimus, listen to me… if you really love her like you say you do, then you wouldn't want anything bad to happen to her, right?"

Optimus only shrugged. Chromia looked at him sadly. "Then you know that if StarChaser remains here…then she is as good as dead."

Optimus continued to look down. Chromia gently placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'll take good care of her Optimus…"

Optimus looked at Chromia sadly, unable to say a word. Chromia watched him waiting for a response. But all she got, was her hand brushed off his shoulder as he walked away.


	16. Chapter 16 End

After Optimus finally came back into the base after watching the sky for a long period of time; he remained quiet and paced back and forth quietly mumbling things to himself. Ratchet couldn't help but watch and wonder what was going through their leader's mind.

"Prime, are you okay?"

Ratchet sat there for a long time in an awkward silence; waiting for an answer. But Optimus continued to pace as if Ratchet wasn't even there. But awkwardly enough, Ratchet wasn't the only sentient being in the room at the time. StarChaser, as nervous as ever; sat next to Chromia on the couch as they both watched Optimus from a distance.

StarChaser looked up at Chromia curiously. "Is he going to be alright?"

Chromia only smiles and nods. "Yes he is. He's just doing what mechs do."

StarChaser looks up dumfounded at Chromia. "What mechs do?"

Chromia just laughs slightly and again nods and then looked back at Optimus who had finally stopped pacing and was looking out the window.

Chromia watched Optimus for only a few seconds before looking down at StarChaser again. "So, I hear you got a name now."

StarChaser looked up away from watching Optimus. "Huh? Oh, yeah I guess."

Chromia smiled and again laughed slightly. "It sounds a lot like her mother's name."

StarChaser blushes and looks away. "Yeah, I guess it does…doesn't it?"

Chromia nods still laughing then looks at StarChaser gently. "You know your mother would be very proud of you…angry…but proud."

StarChaser looks up to Chromia confused. "Proud? Why would she be proud of me?'

Chromia only smiled. "Because you found your sire all on your own without asking help from anyone, that's a pretty big job for such a small sparkling."

Optimus suddenly then turns to Chromia and StarChaser.

"StarChaser I think it's time for bed."

StarChaser, knowing what that meant; jumped down from off the couch and slowly walked to her room. But before going inside, took one last look at both adult machines watching her.

After the shut from the door was heard, Chromia got up off the couch and walked over to Optimus whose optics were set on StarChaser's door.

Chromia was slow to begin to speak. "Have you made your decision?"

Optimus only nods.

Chromia then leans in toward Optimus "and what might that be?"

Optimus could only look down at the floor closing his optics, choking on every word he said. "Will you be ready to take her by morning?'

Chromia only nodded as she put her hand on his shoulder. "Yes, I will."

There was long silence between the two before Chromia spoke, and these were the hardest words she would have to say the whole time that she's been there.

"Optimus…you made the right decision…"

For Optimus, the next morning felt like one of the worst days he's ever had in his entire life. If you've ever lost someone dear to you or have had them taken away, then you know what it's like…a humungous weight on your chest that feels like it's dragging you down to the biter shadows of hell itself, and that with that weight a piece of you is being carved out. Well, that's putting it nicely for how Optimus was feeling now.

Meanwhile, the Elite Guard (as well as Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Prowl) were loading the final things on to the ship and Chromia was waiting outside.

Optimus sat on the couch in the recreation room of the base alone in silence thinking about if he was really doing the right thing or if he was making the biggest mistake of his life. As Optimus sat there looking at the floor, somehow, a small tear found its way out of his optic onto the floor. Just then StarChaser walks in again holding her teddy bear rubbing her tired optics. Optimus shot up off the couch wiping away the tears.

"StarChaser! I-I uh… …didn't hear her get up."

She stood there trying to adjust to the changing light, and then smiled tiredly.

Optimus sheepishly smiled back. "So, how'd you sleep last night?"

She looked up at Optimus yawning the cutest way possible. "Uh, okay I guess…"

Optimus only smiled. "That's good."

Then there was a moment of awkward silence. StarChaser somehow could sense that something was wrong. Slowly, she walked over to Optimus and placed a small hand on his stabilizing servo.

"What's wrong?"

With almost a gentle slowness to his movement, Optimus kneeled down to StarChaser's level and gently whispered her name.

"StarChaser, something has happened and that it's too dangerous for you to be here…that's—."

Optimus looked as if he had gotten punched in the grill or something. StarChaser just couldn't understand it.

"That's why you have to go with Chromia back to Cyberton."

There was a long deafening silence as StarChaser sat there looking up at Optimus in utter shock.

Slowly StarChaser began to stutter out her word, being careful about what she's saying. 'But I-I thought if I found you then we could be together, that we could maybe even be…a family."

Optimus could only sigh as he took StarChaser into his arms. He gently sat down on the floor and slowly caressed her head holding her close to his spark.

StarChaser then looks up with tears beginning to swell in her optics. "Don't you want me?"

Optimus looked down at her as her face rested against his chest plate. "StarChaser, of course I want you, I want nothing more than to be with you always, but I can't risk your safety for my selfish needs."

StarChaser looks up confused. Optimus only sighed as he pulled her even closer.

"StarChaser, ever since that night I spent with your mother had passed, I always felt that there was a part of me missing, and then you show up and I felt as if that missing piece came back…"

And for the first time ever since StarChaser first came here, Optimus had just then done something he had never done before. He looked deep into StarChaser's optics and chose his words carefully for fear that these might be the last moments that StarChaser would remember about him.

"StarChaser, you are MY daughter, and I love you more than life itself. And know that I would do anything to protect you…even if that means I can't be with you…but please…my sweet innocent child…know this…I love you…I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU… and when all this is over, I will come for you, but only then can we be a family."

StarChaser was speechless; she didn't know what to say or how to react. Never in her wildest dreams did she ever imagine that she'd hear those three words come out of her sire's mouth even though those were the three words she had journeyed so far to hear. Optimus then put StarChaser on the floor and got up. He picked her and her teddy bear up and started to walk towards the door.

StarChaser lay in his arms almost like a new born child and watched as a single tear roll down the face of her sires' and hit hers. She finally understood. Her sire, _**her father**_, really did love her.

The tear disappeared as Optimus and StarChaser came into the light of a new day in Detroit. StarChaser then saw Chromia standing there in front of the Elite Guard ship…waiting to take her home.

Optimus slowly came to a halt in front of Chromia and looked down at StarChaser.

He embraced her in a hug just one last time and whispered to her five words he hoped she would never forget. _"I will always love you…"_

StarChaser looked up at Optimus with pleading optics begging Optimus not to leave her, and that she wanted to be with him.

"Optimus I-I…"

Then he said in the same gentle whisper like before. "I will never leave you, and I will always be with you as long as you remember how much I love you."

Slowly he then handed StarChaser to Chromia and whispered. "Take care of her."

He then turned and started to walk away. Chromia put StarChaser over her shoulder and whispered. "Come on, it's time to take you home."

Just then and epiphany came rushing into StarChaser's processor. _'Home, what does that even mean __**'home'**__ is it the place you are born or is it the place you spend most your life. Or is it…something else?'_

Everything in StarChaser's head was screaming: NO YOU IDIOT HOME IS HERE! HOME IS HERE! HOME IS WITH DADDY! Wait… daddy?

Chromia was almost at the top of the ramp just behind Jazz when everything finally became clear to StarChaser. She finally knew where she belonged, and it wasn't on Cybertron… it was here with her dad….on Earth.

StarChaser then screamed as loud as she could.

"**DADDY DON'T LEAVE ME!"**

Everyone froze and looked at StarChaser, but Optimus; he whipped around and looked at StarChaser in a mix of shock and glee. Did she really just say what he thought she said? Did she really just call him "daddy"?

StarChaser forced her way out of Chromia's grip and fell to the ramp but was up just as quick as she fell down running toward Optimus.

She practically jumped into Optimus' arms bawling saying over and over again. "I don't want to go. I don't want to go daddy. I wanna be here with you. I WANT TO BE WITH YOU!"

Optimus embraces StarChaser almost weeping himself.

"StarChaser, please listen to me…"

But then StarChaser screams.

"No! You listen! Ever since mom left I've felt alone and weak…that there was no one else in this universe like me…but then I remembered what momma told me…what she told me about you! She told me that you were the nicest, most gentle, courageous, and most understanding mech she had ever met, and that I reminded her so much of you…and that if you would have been there when I was born you would have fallen in love at first sight. But you weren't because you were in the Autobot Academy, and you didn't even know I existed. But now all that has changed. I found you. I finally found you, I already lost mom, and** I'm not loosing you too**!"

Optimus looked at StarChaser shocked at the fact that she said so much, but then smiled gently hugging her. He didn't say anything. He was more proud than anything else. In his mind, she truly was 'just like him'.

There was a long silence as Optimus stood there holding StarChaser until she finally let go. Optimus looked at her confused but StarChaser being the 'little deviant' only smiled.

She turned and walked slowly over to Chromia looking up at her innocently.

"C-Chromia…I-."

Suddenly Chromia lifted a hand to stop StarChaser. "It's okay little one, I understand… you don't want to go home because…because you're already home. You ARE where you belong."

Chromia then knelt down and embraced StarChaser in a hug. "I'll come and check in on you from time to time."

Chromia then looked at Optimus. "You better take good care of her, Optimus Prime."

Optimus only nodded and smiled.

StarChaser slowly backed away off and away from the ramp watching Chromia and giving a reassuring smile. Almost as if to say don't worry, he will'.

Chromia backed up into the ship and waved one last goodbye as the door slowly closed and the ship began to lift off the ground.

StarChaser continued to wave good bye until the ship was long out of sight and somewhere in the heavens on its way back to Cybertron.

Optimus, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Bulkhead and Prowl watched as StarChaser stared at the sky were the ship had disappeared behind the clouds. Was she having second thoughts about staying here on Earth? Did she suddenly change her mind and now wanted to go back to Cybertron?

But then all at once as if to wipe the worries from Optimus' mind, StarChaser threw up her servos and squealed with joy as she ran and jumped on Optimus; pretty much tackling him.

Optimus not expecting the sudden attack fell backwards onto the ground with StarChaser sitting triumphantly on his chest plate.

Optimus at first glared at StarChaser making her uneasy, but he then started laughing.

"What am I going to do with you?"

StarChaser laughed and she threw herself onto him (hugging him).

"Face it daddy, you're stuck with me."

Optimus then got up and StarChaser jumped onto his shoulders in a kind of piggy-back-style way and wrapped her arms around his neck and laughed. It was a laugh not of just happiness, but of relief and sheer joy of her recent victory. Optimus rolled his optics and laughed as he walked back into the base with 'his monkey' on his back.

Bulkhead and Bumblebee laughed as the fallowed the duo back inside. They talked amongst themselves.

"So you think the boss bot will be more fun now that the kid is staying?"

Bulkhead turned to Bumblebee waiting for an answer. Which is what he got.

"Face it, the boss bot will NEVER be fun, maybe his kid, but not him."

Out of the base a voice rang out with a hysteric giggle fallowing.

"I HEARD THAT BUMBLEBEE!"

Everyone laughed. Today seemed like it was going to be a good day after all.

Prowl merely shook his head and smiled to these turn of events, and then looked at Ratchet.

"So do you think that this is the end?"

Ratchet turned to Prowl.

"What do you mean kid?"

Prowl looked up at the sky, then quickly back at Ratchet.

"I mean, is this the end of StarChaser being fought over, is this the end of StarChaser being thought of as an outsider?"

Ratchet turned to Prowl and smiled. Then started walking toward the base and looked up at the sky as if to stare into space itself before looking at the base to see StarChaser laughing as Optimus tickled her.

"No Prowl, I got a feeling that … this is only the beginning…"

THE END

…or is it?...


End file.
